Cover Story
The Top 10 Stories of 2015
By most measures, 2015 was a rough year on the North Coast. We saw soaring numbers of traffic fatalities, suicides, drownings and homicides, including a pair of officer-involved shootings. Several years of drought left our hills primed for a summer of inland fires and dried creeks, putting added pressure on dwindling salmon runs. And the…
HumBug: Skeletons in My Closet
Let me get one thing out of the way right off: I am not an entomologist in the sense that I have no degree in the subject, nor do I work at it as a profession. Like Sherlock Holmes, I like to think of myself as a talented amateur. I do it because I enjoy…
Eureka City Council Butting Heads With Staff & Each Other on Homelessness
The restless crowd packed into city council chambers Tuesday night gradually filtered out until only the most hardcore civics enthusiasts remained, as the Eureka City Council meeting was extended, then extended again, stretching until 10:30 p.m. The majority of the four-and-a-half-hour meeting was taken up by public comment on two contentious items: whether or not…
UPDATE: No Plans for Local Minimum Wage Initiative in 2016
UPDATE: Local activist and former Arcata City Councilmember Dave Meserve tells the Journal that, in the wake of Measure R’s defeat, he attempted to drum up support for a countywide initiative that would immediately bump the minimum wage to $12 an hour, working up to $15 over a three-year period. Meserve says he met with…
Eureka Wants Your Food Truck Suggestions
Dying to eat somewhere a little less brick-and-mortary? Or maybe you’re looking to bring your ramen-burrito fusion to life without the full risk and investment of a restaurant? (Actually, don’t steal that, that’s mine.) The city of Eureka wants to hear from consumers and entrepreneurs about food trucks. Tapping into nationwide popularity for the small,…
City Mulls Shelter Crisis as Activists Protest Police Presence in PalCo Marsh
Tomorrow evening the Eureka City Council will meet to discuss two items related to the city’s homeless: the feasibility of a temporary, sanctioned camp and whether or not the city should declare a shelter crisis. City Manager Greg Sparks said a site has been identified as a potential temporary camp, a city-owned parking lot at…
Investigation Continues into Fatal Fall
A 26-year-old tree trimmer fell 55 feet to his death last week while clearing storm-damaged limbs along some Pacific Gas & Electric lines near Weitchpec, north of Hoopa. Humboldt County Deputy Coroner Trevor Enright said investigators from a number of entities are still working to figure out exactly what caused Kenneth Arlen Buck Williams, of…
HumBug: Millipedes
The biggest land “bug” that ever lived was a one-foot-wide, 6-foot-long millipede called Arthropleura. The largest nowadays is the foot-long giant African millipede, which some folks raise as pets. The good news is that millipedes on the whole are inoffensive critters, content to dine on decaying vegetation and fungi. By nature millipedes are shy and…
2015 Quotables
Humboldt County is chock full of colorful folks saying poignant, intelligent, crazy, insightful and just plain hilarious things. With the new year upon us, we take a look back at some of our favorite quotes from 2015. And, in case you missed it, check out our Top 10 stories of 2015 for a rundown of…
To Your Health
Hiking, paddling, walking — there are plenty of healthy, outdoorsy things to do on this first day of 2016. Put down the remote, yank up those comfy yoga pants Santa left you and lace up your new sneakers. Resolutions or not, a day spent out in Humboldt’s natural beauty and fresh air is a grand…
Resolving Weed
Every year, it seems like Humboldt County’s marijuana industry, and the complicated relationship our community has with cannabis, goes through massive upheaval. And every subsequent year, there seem to be even more drastic changes. Reflecting back on 2015 (see this week’s cover story), and looking ahead to 2016 fits the pattern. We are coming out…
What’s Right in Humboldt?
There has been a lot of attention paid lately to all that’s wrong in our isolated little community — the high crime rate, the struggling economy and more. But amid all that’s wrong, we also do some things right, and feeding people seems to be one of them. I recently took a tour of the…
Humboldt’s Information Ecosystem
The communication systems that keep us connected are a complex network of networks. As folks on the North Coast know, when part of that system breaks down — as has happened twice in recent months — the consequences aren’t always easy to predict or understand. But we also know that issues arising from unavailable or…
Hum Plate Roundup
Your new year begins with the most important meal of the day. Maybe you’re looking to fortify yourself after all the celebrating or you’re already struggling to keep your shiny, new resolution. We’ve been breakfasting around to find you some options. A Fine Mess Trinidad’s reputation as “a drinking town with a fishing problem” means…
The thing about landslides
is the way they expose the soft belly of dirt, the clinging ropes of root. Tree crowns splayed against the new side of the hill, face downslope … grit in the teeth. Water-smooth trails transect ribs broken by the momentum of rock and sludged silt,…
2016
The holiday season has come to a close; another year behind us, and more importantly, another year in front of us. Another successful circumnavigation around that glowing nuclear orb we call the sun. Without turning this into an astronomy lesson, we are roughly in the same location in relation to the sun that we were…
A Twinkie in His Eye
Editor: I have an easier way of making a Christmas Trifle than Ms. Rogers (“‘Tis But a Trifle,” Dec. 24). You just use alternating layers of Pearce Duff’s blancmange and Jell-O. The first layer takes (in my case) Twinkies and brandy or rum. Then you top off with whipping cream and whatever you fancy, in…
Who’ll Stand up to Rowdy Renters?
Editor: Mike Reinman’s letter (“Share Trinidad,” Dec. 24) regarding vacation rentals (VDUs) in Trinidad contains several factual errors and omissions. He believes that the most egregious impacts of vacation rentals (turning VDUs into “party houses”) is a matter for law enforcement, not property managers. Yet Trinidad has no police department, and a part-time sheriff’s deputy.…
How are Crabs and Elk Alike?
Editor: The article “Changing Tides” (Dec. 17) reveals that our government officials have the capacity to protect human health and safety, as well as livelihoods. Senator McGuire lauded the crabbers’ decision to put people before profits. The crabbers say that they are used to an occasional “bump in the road,” this time caused by natural…
Theory of Evolution
As you pass the Fifth Street storefront that’s now home to Evolution Academy of the Arts, you might wonder where Eureka Studio Arts went. In fact, the art school and exhibition space was known as Eureka Studio Arts when it was under the direction of Micki Flatmo and Linda Mitchell. Artists Brent Eviston and his…
A Community Problem
Editor: As indicated in your Dec. 8 online article (“Humboldt Hits Grim Mark”), suicide is a serious public health problem. It causes immense pain and suffering to individuals and families in our community. As Humboldt County’s public health director, I know the causes of suicide are complex and include factors such as mental illness, substance…
Arts Alive!
Presented by Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and performances are held the first Saturday of each month. For more information, call 442-9054 or go to www.eurekamainstreet.org A TASTE OF BIM 613 Third St. Artist TBA. ADORNI CENTER 1011 Waterfront St. Paul Rickard, watercolors; Barbara Saul, pastels, Soheila Amin, mixed media; “Creative Escapes,”…
Dad’s Fault
Editor: I would like to throw out yet another reason why Ms. Hodgson’s gun control stance (“Tipping Point?,” Dec. 10) is like the old saw, “there are a thousand people hacking away at the branches of the tree of inequity, for every one hacking at its roots.” A major contributor to a violent society is…
Disruption (Personal Edition)
“Disruption” seems to be the latest business fad; if you’re not disrupting — taking risks, causing chaos and regularly failing — you may as well pack up and go home. Being neither a capitalistic mover nor shaker, I can’t offer an opinion on corporate change, but I will on personal change. We humans have evolved…
Top 10 (and Then Some)
Reviews One can usually mark Christmas weekend as a clearinghouse for the major winter releases: the prestige pictures vying for awards consideration, the late season blockbusters, the would-be holiday classics. Disney flipped the script this year, releasing Star Wars the week before and all but demolishing anyone else’s chances of topping the box office. It…
Chump Change
Monty Python, John Cleese and Graham Chapman helped create a movie called The Magic Christian in 1969. It starred Ringo Starr as an orphan adopted by a crazy rich man who proceeds to show him how anyone will willingly do anything if you pay them enough money. It was a silly movie, but I saw…
Hey, Ladieeees
On Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in January, the Humboldt County Library brings back its film series The Affairs of Women (free). Expect a month of femme fatales, fast-talking dames, tragic heroines and struggling starlets. First, Barbara Stanwyck plays a con artist charmed by snake nerd Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve (1941) on Jan. 5,…
