False Narratives
Tom Jackson Jr.’s chief of staff offers defiant defense of university’s handling of protests By Thadeus Greenson
Cover Story
‘False Narratives’
It’s a sunny, cloudless afternoon the day before commencement and Mark Johnson is sitting in a nondescript conference room, its windows shuttered, talking to the North Coast Journal in the Student and Business Services Building at Cal Poly Humboldt. The campus remains quiet and largely vacant two weeks into a “hard closure” instituted in response…
Kenneth Ray Wittenberg
Kenneth Ray Wittenberg passed away suddenly on April 22. He left behind his wife and high school sweetheart of almost 55 years, Ronda Wittenberg, and two daughters, Jenna Wittenberg and Emily Wittenberg (David Shiriwastaw). Ken was a devoted family man, nothing surpassing his love of family. Often described as a man with nine lives, his…
Antonio Allen Avelar: 1972-2024
On May 1, Antonio Allen Avelar passed away surrounded by family and loved ones at Providence Hospital. Antonio was born on May 21, 1972, at Trinity Hospital in Arcata He grew up in Humboldt County alongside his siblings and cousins and attended Arcata High School. Antonio was a loving partner, son, brother, cousin, uncle and…
Cal Poly Readying to Turn Protest Police Reports Over to DA
Cal Poly Humboldt’s University Police Department is wrapping up its criminal investigation into the week-long occupation of Siemens Hall by pro-Palestine demonstrators and associated vandalism, and expects to turn the case over to prosecutors tomorrow, a university spokesperson tells the Journal. At least 33 people were arrested in association with the demonstrations on campus that…
Music Tonight: Sunday, May 19
Australia has a way of cutting out all the bullshit from American culture and leaving in all the greasy and gory fun bits. There are many examples of its righteous offerings since the days of AC/DC and The Road Warrior, but lately there have been a lot of great garage bands breaking containment from the…
Michael Joseph Allison: 1948-2024
Michael Joseph Allison passed away suddenly after a long illness at his home in Trinidad, California, surrounded by his loving wife and two beloved dogs, Puffin and Elliot, on April 23. He was born Sept. 19, 1948 to Dorothy and Lewis Allison of Long Beach, California. Growing up close to the ocean in Long Beach,…
CPH’s Johnson Speaks, SoHum Eats and Card Sharks
This week, the Journal sat down with Cal Poly Humboldt’s Chief of Staff Mark Johnson to talk protests and closing campus. We’ve also got the rundown of what to eat between Rio Dell and Shelter Cove, as well as a peek at the Rain Delay card shop in Arcata. Hit subscribe for weekly updates on…
Cal Poly Humboldt Protester Featured on New York Times Podcast
A Cal Poly Humboldt student was among three people interviewed on today’s edition of the New York Times podcast The Daily, which discusses the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have gripped college campuses across the nation. The episode, which includes some nuanced discussion of the protests, their inspiration and how they are viewed by students of various…
Music Tonight: Friday, May 17
Anybody remember Whomp Wednesdays? That celebration of electronic dance music and its various micro-genres that was usually posted-up at the Jam might not be around in the weekly institutional sense, but its spirit (and production company) lives on tonight at 9 p.m. at the same venue ($15). Come live it up between the deep bass…
Document Sheds Light on Arcata Principal’s Reassignment
Some eight months before the Northern Humboldt Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to relieve Principal Ron Perry of his duties at the end of the school year and reassign him to the classroom, sending shockwaves through the Arcata High School community, the district reprimanded him privately for “not following the law,” the Journal…
Farewell Transmission
I don’t have the space or interest for big elegies or bios just now, but I would like to note the passing last week of two American visionaries who were utterly unique, yet still enabled so much of what is organically fantastic in our nation’s music and cinema. Steve Albini was a master engineer, and…
Secrets of SoHum
As someone who travels almost weekly between Northern and Southern Humboldt, I can tell you that, to the naked eye, it may seem like somewhat of a food desert. You leave the metropolis of Fortuna and slowly enter a redwood hallway with mysterious turnoffs and avenues. Always considering what the next snack will be, I…
When Nature Gives You Rain, Visit a Waterfall
While I don’t mind hiking in a drizzle, particularly in the redwoods, where rainfall is broken by the canopy (“Forest Bathing in the Redwoods,” Get Out, June 15, 2023), the intense rain of recent months kept me away from favorite trails. Finally, on Easter Sunday, after a few days without a storm, I felt it…
Collectors and Community at Rain Delay
If you had asked me a few years ago what kind of new store I would love to see open in Arcata, my answer would not have been a sports memorabilia and collector’s store. But then my son found baseball and my worldview changed. I was as giddy as he was when we walked into…
Rocky Evolutions
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. It’s been a while since the most recent installment in this, the ongoing pre-history of the Apes saga. That movie, War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), took us on a self-aware journey into the heart of darkness, complete with Woody Harrelson doing his best Colonel Kurtz.…
In Defense of the Occupation of Siemens Hall
The reverberations of the seizure of Cal Poly Humboldt’s Siemens Hall in solidarity with Palestinians will ring out for years in our community. As we’ve navigated a “hard-closed” campus, potential criminal charges against students and community members, and a dispersed Cal Poly Humboldt graduation with President Jackson wholly absent, it is worth thinking carefully about…
‘Diversity is a Key’
Editor: Greg King is right that our focus in achieving energy sustainability should be on reducing our overall use (“Why Deindustrialization (Not Wind) is the Answer,” April 25). But his insistence on a monoculture of rooftop solar only as the supply side solution makes no sense. Mr. King has an illustrious career in protecting our…
‘Got to Go’
Editor: “Hey hey, ho ho, Tom Jackson’s got to go!” Richard Salzman, Arcata Editor: I agree with some of Dennis Scales’ sentiments regarding Tom Jackson’s ineptitude (Mailbox, May 9). But to say “the quad has an unpronounceable name” is both ignorant and offensive. Just because you haven›t learned how to pronounce it doesn›t mean it›s unpronounceable. “Gutswurrak” is…
On Passings and Returns
(in honor of Petey Brucker) The barn swallows are back, Fresh from their long flight north. They sit on my carport roof And sing their nesting song. These old friends have returned On a day I mourn another friend, Dear Petey, who has passed on. I am grateful for their presence. Like detritus, irretrievable losses…
