The Hill
That Ate Hwy. 101
Cover Story
The Hill That Ate Hwy. 101
At around 9:20 a.m. last Wednesday, a chunk of hillside in Southern Humboldt slid onto state Highway 101 several miles north of Redway/Garberville. It buckled the road and blocked all four lanes, forcing residents and travelers, goods transporters and even ambulances to adjust their destinations or use alternate routes — dodgy, narrow, storm-wracked county backroads…
Criminal Charges Filed Against Eureka Police Officer
Following a joint investigation by the Eureka Police Department and the Humboldt County District Attorney’s office, former Eureka police officer Daniel “Danny” Kalis has been charged with numerous crimes including false imprisonment, possession of heroin, possession of more than an ounce of marijuana, petty theft and vandalism. The DA’s office first began receiving reports of…
Sequoia Park Zoo Lands $2.3M Grant
This should alleviate some of the City of Eureka’s financial neck pain. The charming (or barbaric, depending on your view) but costly millstone of the Sequoia Park Zoo has been lightened by a whopping grant. The press release: The City of Eureka and the Sequoia Park Zoo Foundation are proud to announce that we have…
The NCRA Gives Trail Proposal the Hairy Eyeball
What exactly was the point of the railbanking item at yesterday’s meeting of the North Coast Railroad Authority? Going into the meeting it seemed that trails advocate Chris Weston and his Eel River Trails Association had built up some momentum in the effort to adapt the long-abandoned stretch or railroad between Willits and South Fork…
Yurok Tribe Doubles Land Base
The Yurok Tribe’s land base, long confined to a narrow strip to either side of the lower Klamath River, will more than double in size now with a just-completed acquisition of 22,237 acres from Green Diamond Resource Company. The tribe announced the acquisition in a news release this afternoon, noting that it will allow for…
Klamath Tsunami Victim Found
The remains of 25-year-old Dustin Douglas Weber, who was swept off a sandspit March 11 by a tsunami surge at the mouth of the Klamath River, were found 300 miles north near the mouth of the Columbia River, reports the Crescent City Daily Triplicate and KGW-NewsChannel 8 in Portland with the Associated Press (h/t Lost…
Eureka’s Serial Dog Killer
I don’t know who held the title up ’til now, but Eureka has a new king of sociopathic cruelty, and his name is Donovan Nathaniel Baltzley. A warning: If you can’t stand the thought of something horrible happening to the dog pictured here, you should probably stop reading this post. You may remember Baltzley’s name.…
A Reliable Source
Reviews SOURCE CODE. As in his debut, Moon, *Source Code* finds director Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie, son of rock star David Bowie) working within a sort of deconstructed genre framework, then allowing his protagonist to become the prime mover, thereby humanizing what could easily become a boilerplate popcorn movie. In this case, US Army…
Flake Out
Not long ago, the giant Humboldt Flakeboard factory on West End Road in Arcata bustled with workers processing the leftovers from the lumber mills into particleboard. Now the cavernous building is empty, unlit and silent save for a low electrical hum. A thick layer of sawdust covers belts and saw blades and muffles the sound…
Going Somewhere
It’s a classic scenario that pretty much ignores the new digital paradigm in the music biz. The red hot band from Austin has a new record out and is marking the occasion by barnstorming its way around the country in a crowded van: Texas to Colorado, through Utah up to Idaho, over to the coast…
All Creatures
Editor: While I’m confident that Barry Evans’ recent Field Notes essay on malaria doesn’t reflect his personal opinion of wetlands, it could have been interpreted as a diatribe against swamps and other “inadequately-drained” habitats (“The Vicious Circle of Malaria,” March 31). As he pointed out, malaria was essentially eliminated from the U.S. and the Canal…
A (Board) Walk Through Time
Come take a stroll through time with me, all 13.75 billion years of it, give or take a week or so. Our walk will take 10 minutes, max, along Eureka’s quarter-mile-long boardwalk, from the east end opposite G Street to the center of the new map next to the C Street dock. A quarter mile…
Truth vs. truth
Editor: It seems to me that there are several errors, both as to putative “facts” and as to lines of reasoning, in the “Global Warming?” piece by Barry Evans (Field Notes, March 24). These errors are all of what I call a “Truth-for-truth” nature. That is to say, Mr Evans presents capital “C”, capital “T”…
April 7-13
April 7. Ice makers are reminded that animal and vegetable impurities may turn up in improperly processed ice; they generally make themselves known by a disagreeable taste or odor within the core of the ice. April 8. The sun rises at 6:49 a.m. April 9. The possibility has arisen of a grafted tomato. Just as…
X-ray Revision
Editor: Mr. Hardin stated that “X-rays, like radio waves and visible light … do not involve neutrons at all, and are therefore called non-ionizing radiation” (“A Scream,” Mailbox, March 31). While it is true that X-rays, (like radio waves and visible light), are different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, X-rays and gamma rays will pass through…
No One Knows About Persian Cats
The Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi weaves elements of documentary into his narratives, which mainly focus on the Kurdish villagers who live on the harsh terrain at the borders of Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Language, culture, livelihood, survival and music have been common threads in Ghobadi’s films since the release of his excellent debut, Time For…
Activism: 101
activists would do well to note that mudslides…
Arts! Arcata
1) 3 Foods Café 835 J St. Singer and songwriter Anna Hamilton 2) Abruzzi 780 7th St. Jazz from bassist Shao Way Wu and pianist Brian Post. 3) AMPT 1040 H. St. Art by local skaters Nick and Ian. 4) Arcata Artisans Cooperative 883 H St. Vaughn Hutchins, photographs; Mimi LaPlant, painting and jewelry; Libby…
Say Cheese — Again
“Cheese is one of the great achievements of humankind. Not any cheese in particular, but cheese in its astonishing multiplicity, created anew every day in the dairies of the world.” — Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking The multiplicity of cheese is astonishing and can be intimidating if you’re learning to make cheese by carrying…
Week of the Young Child
Saturday, April 9 Fantastic Felines! 9am-Noon, $25. “Lions and tigers and kitty cats, oh my! Let’s meet these purr-fectly amazing critters!” Sequoia Park Zoo, 3414 W St., Eureka.Call Amber Neilson, 441-4217. Monday, April 11 To kick off the 2011 WOYC! Free showing of the documentary film, “Babies, ” followed by a facilitated discussion, 6:30-8:30am. Humboldt County Office…
Animal Magnetism
When the Washington Post wrote its preview of “the three-day mega-concert” Coachella, it highlighted a handful of headliners who are among the biggest names in music today: Kanye West, Arcade Fire, The Strokes and … Animal Collective, a post-psychedelic band that you’d think is far outside the mainstream. How did four animalistic friends from Baltimore…
Shiny Portals to World Relief
Times are undeniably stressful, and it’s hard to think that miracles will happen when you’re preoccupied with natural disasters and radioactive particles raining from the sky. Some would argue, however, that thinking in terms of miracles is the only way out of this arguably human-caused quagmire. Consider Dr. Amit Goswami, the theoretical physicist and pioneer…
Gray Matters Spring 2011
Gray Matters Spring 2011
Dead Prez
At 11 o’ clock on Friday night, this middle class white girl dragged her tired body away from a P.F. Chang’s frozen dinner and Groundhog Day on Netflix to go to a Dead Prez show at the Red Fox Tavern. In an effort to disguise my whiteness, I put on the one trendy outfit I…
Apple a Day
A political cartoon in Sunday’s Times-Standard showed Snow White looking askance at an old woman who offers her an apple. “Is it from Japan?,” she asks. It was one of two cartoons on the topic of radiated food in the four-set on the Sunday opinion page. It’s the top story in my head these days.…
Ford Country
The Humboldt County Library Based on the Book film series for April is underway with a focus on classic films by director John Ford. Wynston Jones serves as host for a Tuesday, April 12, screening of How Green Was My Valley, winner of the 1941 Best Picture and Best Director Oscar, starring Walter Pidgeon, Roddy…
Destination Iraq
One morning last September Pete Nichols of Humboldt Baykeeper was up early working, listening to the radio in the background. Something on the BBC News caught his attention. “I heard an interview with this Iraqi, Azzam Alwash, talking about his [river] restoration work for an organization called Nature Iraq,” Nichols recalled a couple of weeks…
