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September 15, 2005
ADD WATER, STIR: North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
officials and Pacific Lumber Co. each lobbed fresh ammo last
week in advance of the board's public hearing in Humboldt County
this week on proposed watershed-wide waste discharge requirements
(permits) for timber harvest plans in the Elk River and Freshwater
Creek watersheds. Palco says the reduced harvest suggested in
the proposed permits will create a financial loss, and again
blamed recent layoffs at its subsidiary, Scopac, on the decisions
made by the regional and state water boards. Palco has sought
to put off the hearing, first by asking for a three-month delay.
That was denied, so on Friday Palco filed for a restraining order
in Humboldt County Superior Court. Before that, on Sept. 7, Palco
issued a news release accusing the water boards of overstepping
their authority and ignoring the Porter-Cologne Water Quality
Control Act, which requires a look at economic considerations,
among other things, when weighing timber harvest plans. "Disturbingly,
the staff's proposed WWDRs do not contain any economic analysis
of the impact that such an extreme harvest limitation would have
on Scopac, other landowners, Palco, other timber industry operators
or the community at large." Meanwhile, the regional board
last week released its manifesto on those economic considerations.
The regional board, echoing the state water board, says the permits
will "not directly reduce the long-term income of the discharger
because the same number of trees will be available for cutting
at a future date, and the available board feet left standing
will increase as the trees grow over time." The regional
board blames the company's financial woes on "the debt the
company has chosen to incur and reincur on the Scotia Pacific
subsidiary, and the decision to frontload the liquidation of
standing timber assets at a rate that was expressly designed
to be high in the early years, dropping off over time as the
standing timber assets were depleted ." Palco, wrote the
board, "consciously chose a boom and bust strategy ."
The board says harvest reduction could have widespread positive
impacts, such as reducing the costs of fixing landslides, dredging
sediment from the bay, healing destroyed fisheries, abating flooding
and replacing water supplies for agricultural and domestic use.
A hearing was held Tuesday afternoon on Palco's restraining order
request; at press time, Judge Bruce Watson had not yet made a
decision.
FDIC APPEALS FINE: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is appealing
the $72 million in sanctions and legal costs that U.S. District
Court Judge Lynn N. Hughes, in Texas, levied against it in August
for its role in its case against Charles Hurwitz and Maxxam Inc.,
of which Pacific Lumber Co. is a subsidiary. The FDIC sued Hurwitz
and Maxxam 10 years ago to regain costs incurred when the FDIC
bailed out one of Hurwitz' failed savings and loans, which the
FDIC alleged Hurwitz mismanaged.
The Office of Thrift Supervision
sued along the same lines, and that case settled. Along the way,
conservationists had proposed that, if the feds won their case
against Hurwitz and Maxxam, they take some of Hurwitz' acres
of redwood forest as payment. Though the FDIC backed out of the
case in 2002, the "debt-for-nature" scheme, and the
years spent in court, rankled Hurwitz enough that he sought his
own reparation. Judge Hughes, fervently likening the federal
government to "Goliath" and calling it a "corrupt
agency" populated by "corrupt individuals" ordered
the FDIC to pay Hurwitz $72 million. In its appeal last week
to that decision, the FDIC said the judge's opinion lacked factual
support.
TRIBAL HOLD 'EM: Last week, just as the Big Lagoon Rancheria announced
that it had successfully negotiated a compact with Gov. Schwarzenegger
to build a casino in Barstow, the specter of a potential future
obstacle loomed. The Big Lagoon Rancheria, an 18-member family
in Humboldt County, and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and
Cupeno Indians (near San Diego), which also had its compact signed
by the governor, plan to build two conjoined casino/hotels off-reservation
in the desert town of Barstow, which has been courting Indian
gaming as an economic infusion. It's an unusual deal, in many
ways, and controversial. Next, their compacts must be ratified
by the Legislature. But that prospect just got dicier, with last
week's failure by two other tribes to get their compacts ratified.
The 5,000-member Yurok Tribe, whose lands lie along the Klamath
and Trinity rivers, and the 3,200-member Quechan tribe of Imperial
County had negotiated compacts with the governor to build relatively
small casinos for the Yurok, the first casino on their reservation,
for the Quechan the third. The compacts were protested by several
big gambling tribes in Southern California who feared the new,
more restrictive compacts could tighten the noose around their
own operations someday. The Legislature decided to put off considering
the compacts until next year's session.
MAD RIVER HOSPITAL SIGNS
CONTRACT: After a summer of hardball
with Blue Cross, Mad River Community Hospital finally signed
a four-year contract with the giant insurance carrier this month.
Still, hospital officials said that they were not offered reimbursement
rates as high as they hoped for. Through June and much of July,
MRCH publicly complained over the hospital's Blue Cross reimbursement
rates, which they said paled in comparison to the rates given
to its competitor, St. Joseph Hospital. Negotiation details were
not made public.
TAXPAYERS' DEAL: The Humboldt Taxpayers' League lawsuit against
would-be boardwalk developers Dolores Vellutini and Glenn Goldan
got a little stranger last week when Eureka resident Sue Brandenburg
was named as the new plaintiff in the case. Though she was not
at a special meeting held by the Eureka City Council, HTL Vice-president
Jerry Partain spoke on Brandenburg's behalf, saying that, "laws
are set in place, not only to protect the individual, but also
to protect the public at large." OK. The watchdog organization
claims the proposed waterfront developments of Vellutini and
Goldan conflicted with their ties to the Eureka Redevelopment
Agency. The league withdrew the lawsuit in June after a majority
of the HTL loudly opposed it. Partain said that the league will
lend its support to Brandenburg.
PLANE CRASH: The remains of a Thousand Oaks couple were found
by foresters Sept. 2, 28 years after their airplane crashed into
a redwood forest near Stafford. The couple, Norman and Beverly
Wascher, took off from Murray Field airport in Eureka after visiting
their daughter, who was attending Humboldt State University.
The plane was not discovered until 1996, and the wreckage of
their single-engine Rockwell Commander remains there, on Pacific
Lumber land, nose down in the earth. The recently found remains
were discovered some 300-400 yards away. Humboldt County Coroner
Frank Jager said that since the couple's dental records have
not been found, as their dentist is no longer in business, the
Waschers have yet to be positively identified, though their identity
seems conclusive. A money clip, inscribed with the name of Norman
Wascher's employer, the Shale Lumber Co., was found in the pants
pocket still clad to the skeletal remains. Coins in the pocket
were dated before 1977. About one month after the accident, in
July 1977, Northwestern Pacific Railroad crews reported to the
Humboldt County sheriff that buzzards were flying above a ridge
overlooking the town of Stafford. Police investigated but found
no evidence of the plane crash.
OLDDIE BUT GOODIE: Marion Kofford, 93, the oldest student at Humboldt
State and possibly in the world, has been getting crazy attention
for her academic endeavors. A story about Kofford, written by
the HSU communications department, ran on the front page of the
Times-Standard on Sept. 8, and has since been picked up
by the Associated Press. Excerpts from the article ran
in the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and myriad
other publications, radio and television stations. One write-up
mistakenly referred to Kofford as a man: "At 93, Calif.
man goes back to college." On one news station's website,
the story was filed under the "Strange and Unusual"
section, which also ran segments on elephant polo matches and
a gator in a gutter. Kofford, who attended UC Berkeley when she
was 17, has enrolled in the Over 60 program at HSU since the
1980s. Over 60 Coordinator Rhonda Geldin described Kofford as
optimistic and said that she is always the first person to do
her homework. So, that might not be as exciting as elephant polo,
but it's still pretty awesome.
CORRECTION: In last week's guide to Arts Arcata!, the artist
who produced a ceramic plate pictured alongside the listings
of events was misidentified. The plate was created by Amber Riordan.
In addition, a production error cut off several of the exhibitions
scheduled for that night. The Journal regrets the errors.
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Hit the
books
Local teacher launches
Fantasy Football math text
by
HELEN SANDERSON
Math class. The thought of it
alone can incite sweat glands, kick-start nausea or just evoke
boredom for some students. The feeling is something that Dan
Flockhart knows well. As a middle school math teacher in San
Mateo for 11 years, Flockhart who now lives in Fortuna and teaches
at College of the Redwoods has observed some bad attitudes toward
the subject.
To erase the fear and lack of
interest many students felt toward that four-lettered field of
study, he shook up his curriculum by regularly using the `F'
word: "football." Fantasy Football, that is.
Now, years after his retirement
from the classroom, he has written a supplemental resource guide,
Fantasy Football and Mathematics, for teachers and parents
of students grades 5-12. The book was launched two weeks ago
and, according to Flockhart, has been selling fast.
Fantasy Football, played by
an estimated 13 million people, is a game where fans draft their
own team, composed of pro players, and compete against a pool
of other teams. For the 17-week season participants keep track
of the points their players accrue in the actual games.
Flockhart's students instantly
liked the idea. Instead of the traditional "drill and kill"
practice-problem approach where teachers lord over the students,
the Fantasy Football method gave the kids independence in the
classroom.
"They have control and
power over their own team, no one can tell them what to do and
they love that," he said.
Using box scores from the newspaper,
students keep track of their players' points, make graphs, find
the mode, median and range of the stats and check the calculations
of their peers to make sure everyone is getting their math, and
thus their scores, correct.
For fifth graders, the game
introduces them to the concepts of algebra for the first time;
for older students in remedial classes, it gives them a fresh
way to look at math. Flockhart recalled the turnaround of a few
boys who often caused trouble and were not "into" school.
"When we started this [exercise],
they already knew box scores and they knew all the players,"
he said. "So the other students started asking them how
to read scores and who to pick for their team. They became the
leaders of the group. It was a beautiful thing to see. They started
doing better in all their other classes."
Originally Flockhart, 48, was
concerned that girls would be marginalized from the activity,
though it was never the case in his classes. Female students'
teams often won, he said. At the end of the football season,
he would take the top three winners and the bottom three losers
out for ice cream.
One girl's father thanked Flockhart
for the Fantasy Football instruction, saying that football was
a way for them to bond.
When Flockhart went back to
school in 2000, to get a master's degree in education at Humboldt
State, he decided that creating a teacher's resource book using
Fantasy Football would be part of his thesis.
HSU professors, often inclined
to focus on social justice issues, inspired Flockhart to create
a textbook that did not carry on the tradition of teaching math
from a white privileged viewpoint.
"[Textbook writers] have
no idea about the experience of urban youth," he said. "Math
books have examples of `daddy building a play structure in the
back yard for Sally and Jimmy.' Those things just don't apply
to kids in urban areas.
"Adolescents are into sports,
video games, pop culture. In urban areas, if you mention [Minnesota
Vikings Quarterback] Duante Culpepper, they know who he is, they
wear his jerseys, the sneakers. Those things motivate students."
According to the National Center
for Educational Statistics, 83 percent of eighth graders in major
urban areas are not proficient in mathematics.
Rather than pitching the book
locally, where test scores are comparatively high, Flockhart
has concentrated on marketing the book to bigger cities. And
while he declined to disclose how many books have been sold,
citing competition concerns, he said that he might have to hire
someone to keep up with the demand. So far, his wife has been
helping mail the 170-page text from their Fortuna home.
"I know it's corny, but
every time we send off a book I like thinking about how many
students this might help," he said. "It gives me such
a good feeling."
TOP
Trinidad
police investigate Salzman
by
HANK SIMS AND HELEN SANDERSON
Following the Journal's
exposure of his pseudonymous letter-to-the-editor campaign, the
Trinidad Police Department began actively conducting a criminal
investigation of local political consultant Richard Salzman last
week.
Trinidad Police Chief Ken Thrailkill
said that he could not comment on the investigation while it
was still in progress, but he did confirm that he was looking
into the case.
The Eureka Reporter,
a newspaper owned by area businessman Rob Arkley, reported on
Sunday that the police action was sparked after the paper's editor,
Glenn Franco Simmons, asked Thrailkill to investigate. As the
Reporter has noted, submitting a letter to a newspaper
under another person's name is a punishable crime in California.
Salzman, who lives in Trinidad,
submitted at least two letters using the name of a supporter,
Fortuna resident Dick Wyatt, and numerous others under a pseudonym,
"R. Trent Williams." The letters were printed in a
number of local papers, including the Journal.
The Journal has now uncovered
convincing evidence that seems to indicate that Salzman has more
recently used a third pseudonym, "R. Johnson," to correspond
with local newspapers and at least one private party.
Looking over suspicious e-mails
again last week, the Journal noted that at least one "R.
Johnson" letter was signed with the same Eureka phone number
that the "R. Trent Williams" letters provided. That
number, which had been registered to a now-deceased woman named
Patrice Sanderson, is no longer in service.
The address given in the "R.
Johnson" letters is the home of 93-year-old Eureka resident
Ruth Johnson.
Likewise, the Journal
spoke last Wednesday with the owner of the residence provided
to this newspaper in the "R. Trent Williams" letters.
The home, which is located in the greater Eureka area, belongs
to Robert Williams, a retired Humboldt County Sheriff's Office
captain.
"I did not authorize him
to use my address in a newspaper or magazine in writing letters
to anyone," Williams said.
Also last Wednesday, Wyatt related
how it came to be that Salzman came to use his name in at least
two letters to the editor. He said that Salzman called him at
home shortly after the two ran into each other at a Mike Thompson
fundraiser this summer. According to Wyatt, Salzman asked if
he could submit a letter using his name. Wyatt reportedly assented,
after which Salzman called back and read the letter in question
to Wyatt over the phone before sending it in.
But Wyatt said that he had not
authorized a second letter that appeared under his name, one
that was sharply critical of Fortuna City Councilmember Debi
August. Wyatt said that after seeing the letter for the first
time in a local newspaper, he personally apologized to August
and sought an explanation from Salzman.
"I said, `Richard, I wish
you'd read me the letter,'" Wyatt recalled. "Don't
send any more letters to anyone under my name. He said OK. He
said, `Don't worry about it, it will all blow over.' Well, it
hasn't."
The Reporter's complaint
to the Trinidad Police Department has occasioned some suspicion
that the newspaper's owner, Rob Arkley, is making good on a promise
delivered last year. In a widely circulated e-mail that was eventually
printed in the Times-Standard, Arkley a Republican who
sided with Salzman during the election of and recall attempt
against District Attorney Paul Gallegos renounced his affiliation
with the left-wing Salzman and vowed to "take it to"
him.
"Richard, I see the devious
way that you fight and I will take it to you in the future,"
read the e-mail, in part. "You, not I, are going to be the
topic in the future. On Talk Shop, you will be famous. On Channel
3, the same. Poor rich radical from the city who wants to tell
us all what to do. ... This will be fun. Get ready. You have
had your run. Now, it is my turn."
Simmons said Tuesday that he
had not consulted with Arkley before contacting the police, though
he had spoken with Reporter Publisher Judi Pollace. He
said that his concern was not to perpetuate a political vendetta,
but to protect the integrity of his newspaper.
"We've been fooled quite
a few times," Simmons said. "I'm still trying to find
out how many letters were sent in by R. Trent Williams, but it's
quite a few."
Salzman has been a prominent
figure in a number of recent political causes, from acting as
Gallegos' campaign manager during the turbulent recall campaign
to supporting the efforts of environmental groups during the
ongoing update of the county's general plan. He is the founder
of the Alliance for Ethical Business.
TOP
Humboldt's
Katrina deployment
by
HEIDI WALTERS
Late Friday afternoon, the echoey
American Red Cross building on 11th and E streets in Eureka rang
with a few giddy last voices. Most of the volunteers had gone
home for the day to return early Saturday and the remaining staff
and volunteers were getting ready to leave as well, and their
loosening tensions released laughter and chatter like birds returning
to the roost at sundown. It was day 13 of fielding hundreds of
phone calls, collecting monetary donations more than $80,000
in checks alone had walked in the door as of Friday and training
volunteers to be deployed south to help the survivors of Hurricane
Katrina and the ensuing flood.
Meanwhile, across the bay in
Arcata at the corner of I and 7th streets, a former Eureka School
District bus settled into the parking lot next to Humboldt Hydroponics.
Over the next couple of days, she'd be swathed in a fresh new
coat of bright blue paint and stenciled with a new name in yellow:
Pastors for Peace. There'd be a slogan added later, something
about helping hurricane victims ignored by the feds. And there'd
be boxes and boxes of donated practical essentials packed inside.
Thus, from the practical to
the protest-minded, the local effort to aid hurricane and flood
survivors escalated. And this is just a snippet of the tale of
Humboldt-spun safety nets tossed south.
Red Cross
"It's been amazingly busy,"
said instructor Linda Nellist at the Red Cross chapter in Eureka
Friday evening. "It's busier than it was after Sept. 11,
and the reason is we are deploying more volunteers to help with
the disaster and to open shelters. Because it's so big, we're
deploying people with life experience teachers, people who've
worked with youth groups and in hospitality services, people
familiar with housing."
So far the chapter has deployed
a dozen trained volunteers to the Southern states impacted by
the hurricane, flooding and mass evacuation. The chapter has
about 40 more volunteers waiting to go and yet another couple
dozen about to finish training. Volunteers commit to a three-week
deployment, said Nellist.
She said she would like to see
the interest remain active for months to come or, really, forever,
"because you never know when the next disaster will be."
In addition to regular health and safety courses, Red Cross offers
free disaster preparedness classes, after 18 hours of which,
and a successful interview, you could be on your way to help
hurricane survivors. The introductory class can be taken online.
(See below for class schedules.)
Even if you don't take the classes,
you can at least throw a map of the Humboldt Bay area tsunami
flood zones in your car, and prepare a simple backpackful of
emergency supplies in the event of a local disaster. You can
pick up pamphlets at the Red Cross office, or get the information
off its website.
Red Cross continues to accept
money donations, as well. Nellist said that after 9/11 and an
investigation into Red Cross' use of donations sent in response,
the Red Cross now allows people to designate a state they want
money sent to. "But we're hoping people will donate to the
general disaster relief fund, which goes to whatever disaster
we're working on at the time," she said.
The chapter also is helping
at least eight families who've fled to Humboldt County from the
disaster.
Pastors for Peace
By 5:30 p.m. Sunday, as Earl
Thomas sang the blues on the Arcata Plaza, down on the corner
a couple blocks away the bright blue Pastors for Peace bus was
almost loaded up. One box contained everything from avocado butter
hair treatment to bandages, razors and tissues. Another box was
full of flashlight batteries. In the lot was Shannon Ryan, 23,
Woody Sandberg, 26, and "some random guy" (said Ryan)
painting orange frills on the bus' rear. Ryan called out to the
guy to keep it simple. Monday morning, Ryan and Sandberg both
licensed bus drivers would begin their long trek to Little Rock,
Ark., where they would converge Thursday with up to 10 other
Pastors for Peace buses from around the country. From there,
the supplies they carried would be moved further, into the "places
that are not getting a lot of media attention, the more rural
communities," said Ryan.
Ryan organized the Arcata collection.
"I knew this bus was sitting on someone's land, in Willow
Creek," she said. Sandberg had bought it at an auction.
" It's unusual for Pastors for Peace to do a domestic trip,"
said Ryan, who has twice driven a "friendship caravan"
to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba. "Usually [a caravan]
is to protest cruel U.S. foreign policies. But they just thought
because this was such a sad situation, they felt it was their
duty to help their brothers and sisters out." She said this
trip, too, was a protest of the way the U.S. government "is
not taking care of its people."
Sandberg, who dropped out of
this semester at HSU to drive south with Ryan, said he has nothing
more important to do. "I was pretty, like, shocked by the
story that was unfolding, the way people didn't seem to be getting
helped right away."
-- -- --
TO DONATE TO RED CROSS , or for more information, call 443-4521 or go
to www.redcross.org. Here is the Eureka Red Cross chapter's disaster
preparedness class schedule:
Sept. 17 1 p.m.-4 p.m. Shelter
operations
Sept. 19 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Disaster health services
Sept. 19 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Living on the faultline
Sept. 21 9 a.m.-noon Shelter operations
Sept. 22 1 p.m.-4 p.m. Shelter operations
Sept. 28 1 p.m.-4 p.m. Shelter operations
Sept. 29 9 a.m.-noon Shelter operations
The Pastors for Peace's Arcata
bus has already left town and passed through Garberville, San
Francisco and Davis, but you can still donate gas money. Go to
www.pastorsforpeace.org.
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