Cover Story
Top 10 Stories
2023 has been a year of transition in Humboldt County. On the positive side, after generations of efforts, we’re transitioning into a community that undams its rivers, with news of PG&E’s plan to remove its dams from the Eel River following word that the first of four dams had been removed from the Klamath River.…
Music Tonight: Friday, Jan. 5
Wrangletown Cider Co. has been hosting an interesting array of shows recently, as the venue continues to do so tonight, where at 7 p.m. you will find a songwriter’s showcase. Hosted by Ruby Ruth George, tonight’s group features some of the luminaries of our local scene, including Tofu Mike Schwartz, Jeff Kelley and Chris Parreira.…
EPD Identifies Man Found in Mall Fire, Deems Death Accidental
The Eureka Police Department has identified the man whose remains were found burned in a small fire near the Bayshore Mall in October and determined his death was likely accidental. EPD used a witness account and DNA results to identify the man as Richard George Shannon, 27. According to the department, its investigation revealed Shannon…
New Law Gives Employees Cannabis Protection
Starting Jan. 1, California employers are now barred from asking workers about their use of cannabis outside of work, and from discriminating against them because of it. Two bills signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the past couple of years aim to strengthen the state’s legal cannabis industry by updating outdated laws. Assembly Bill 2188,…
New Law Adds Prison Sentencing Enhancements for Fentanyl Trafficking
People convicted of distributing fentanyl will face stiffer criminal penalties in the coming year under a new law shaped by rising overdose deaths. The law increases the penalty for selling or distributing more than 1 kilogram of fentanyl by an automatic addition of three years to the original sentence. The penalties continue to increase with…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Dec. 31
As I mentioned before, tonight is the big bang before the deafening silence next week of the Newborn Year, so I’m loading it up with lots of options. I only ask that you party safe and drive sober. Let’s get two rock gigs going first. The Siren’s Song is hosting Lxs Perdxdxs, Think Tank, and…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Dec. 30
The Arcata Playhouse is presenting a New Year’s Eve Eve Party tonight at 7:30 p.m. The evening starts off with a variety show featuring some of the regular Playhouse players, including but not limited to: Jackie Dandeneau, Julie Fulkerson, David Ferney, Peggy Martinez, James Zeller and others. After that, it’s a dance party amid the…
Looking Back on 2023 and Ahead to Celebrations
As 2023 winds down, we’re looking back on the Top 10 most impactful stories of the year. We’ve also got the Top 10 Dick Moves that irked us in Humboldt, and suggestions for celebrating the New Year this weekend. Hit subscribe for weekly updates on stories from around the county.
Music Tonight: Friday, Dec. 29
Front Ear, one of the most promising and talented new-ish groups around, is a jazz quintet made up of some of the brightest lights in our local scene, namely Shane Fox, Russ Thallheimer, Nicholas Talvola, Alex Espe and Ian Taylor. You can catch the fellas at Wrangletown Cider at 7 p.m., where the $15 cover…
Puzzles December 28, 2023
The Journal would like to wish David Levinson Wilk, our crossword puzzler of many years, a happy retirement and welcome aboard Matt Jones.
Top 10 Dick Moves of 2023
Humboldt is short on a great many things — housing, OBGYNs, Portuguese restaurants — but 2023 had no shortage of dick moves. Dick moves are by definition avoidable but are they fixable? Can a selfish, malicious and petty act of destruction be undone? Reversed? Even redeemed? Last December, thieves snuck in under cover of darkness…
CPH Included in New Collaborative Earthquake Study Center
It’s a question of when, not if, a major rupture will occur in the Cascadia subduction zone, unleashing a devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami with potentially catastrophic consequences for a large swath of the Pacific coastline. Stretching nearly 600 miles from British Columbia to Cape Mendocino, the megathrust fault has a long history of activity…
What’s Under the Hood
ANYONE BUT YOU might have been titled Shakespeare for Dummies, Starring Sydney Sweeney’s Decolletage. Earlier this year, a couple of studio comedies (Joyride and No Hard Feelings) threatened to revivify the genre with new perspectives and insightful, pointed writing in service of jokes that are actually funny; it felt like a moment. This, on the…
Father and Child Reunion
As a fan of editorial cartoons from years long gone, I can assure you that few themes survive the incomprehensible gulf of time’s effect on human culture and meaning other than a small handful of personifications. These caricatures — the fat cat business tycoon, the resolute but downtrodden worker, the clumsy, vicious and stupid warmongering…
Classic Oatmeal Cookies Revisited
Winter has arrived, so far carrying buckets of rain. Spreading a sweet aroma around the house by baking cookies is an excellent antidote to seasonal claustrophobia, when I start feeling caged within the walls of short, wet days. Guided on one hand by my Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies (“What-if Cookies,” Jan. 13, 2022) and…
