The Sinking Feeling
The effort to keep Humboldt Bay’s derelict boats from going under
Cover Story
That Sinking Feeling
The sinking of the Dennis Gayle is a success story, perhaps not to boatmakers or historians, but to the people and creatures that call Humboldt Bay home. On the morning of Feb. 28, someone at the Humboldt Bay Forest Products Dock in Fields Landing noticed the Dennis Gayle, which had been moored there for years,…
State Conducting Sweeping Investigation of DHHS’s Handling of Child Abuse Reports
The California Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into the the Humboldt Department of Health and Human Services’ handling of reports of child abuse and neglect, and specifically whether it is in compliance with the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act. The origins and goals of the investigation are unclear, but a court document…
Tight Club
Brett Walters is a wrestler, not a fighter. Watching the bespectacled 6-foot-3-inch, 169.5-pound Humboldt State University student and professed pacifist carefully peel a tangerine with his long fingers, it’s a stretch to imagine him calling himself Rocket Boy Brett and launching himself at some snarling tough guy in in the ring. “I get that a…
Huffman Urges DOJ to Clarify Stance on Pot Advertising
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman is urging the Department of Justice to rebuff the U.S. Postal Service’s requests and publicly state that it won’t prosecute businesses who are mailing advertisements for marijuana but are acting in line with state law. Huffman joined seven of his colleagues in penning a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta…
Name Released of Deceased SoHum Man Dumped in Hospital Driveway
Christopher Duke, 55, was probably already deceased when parties unknown unloaded his body into the shadows at the end of the driveway of Jerold Phelps Community Hospital in Garberville. “The upper part of the body was wrapped in a sheet, including the face,” says Kent Scown, the hospital’s chief operating officer. “It is an odd…
HumBug: Alien Eyes
If mankind ever encounters space aliens, it’s a pretty sure bet they won’t be much like us. There will likely be some similarities; 2+2=4 everywhere, after all. Any advanced life form must have some way of perceiving the universe around it and insects might be a good model. They’re not necessarily like the aliens, but…
TL;DR: Five Things You Need to Know about Derelict Boats on Humboldt Bay
Busy week? We get it. Let us get you afloat of this week’s main story. Here are some highlights from “That Sinking Feeling.” The February sinking of the Dennis Gayle represented a small victory in an ongoing problem: derelict boats on Humboldt Bay. When the Gayle’s sister ship the Allen Cody sank in 2008, hundreds…
Whitethorn Woman Faces 10-Year Prison Term for Environmentally Destructive Grow
A Whitethorn woman has pleaded guilty to charges of depredation against the property of the United States, admitting to doing more than $100,000 worth of environmental damage to federal lands as a part of her marijuana cultivation operation. Melinda Van Horne entered the plea Wednesday, according to a press release, and is free on bond…
‘Full Spectrum’: One Way to Attract Doctors to the North Coast
It’s no secret Humboldt County has a doctor shortage. The lack of both primary care physicians and specialists has a variety of causes, and a host of impacts on the community. And efforts to recruit and retain doctors are met with mixed results; the shortage continues, but once in a while, you get a success…
Step Up
If, like me, your office Dancing with the Stars pool has just begun and you were unlucky enough to draw Marla Maples so that you now have not only a snowball’s cha-cha chance in hell at winning the pot, but also feel like you are covered in Drumpf cooties, take heart. You needn’t watch the…
City of Eureka Taking Proposals for Sanctuary Camp
This morning, the city of Eureka released an official request for proposals aimed at “nonprofit organization[s], religious institution[s] or other interested parties to provide a temporary-not greater than six months sanctioned camping facility within the city limits.” With a scant 39 days until the estimated 180 people living behind the Bayshore Mall are ordered to vacate in…
Manslaughter Arrest Made in September Death
The Eureka Police Department has arrested a 24-year-old on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter for the September death of a local homeless man, Terry Lee Thomas. Thomas, 63, was found bloodied and unresponsive shortly after 8 p.m. on Sept. 8 in the parking lot of the Courthouse Market in the 900 block of Fourth Street. He…
Hop To
This could be the year you hand paint those elegant, gilded Russian Easter eggs and serve that gorgeous Instagram-crushing brunch you’ve been virtually assembling on your Pinterest board. Unless you have small children, in which case you need to jam some candy into plastic eggs, find some new hiding places, run interference so the eldest…
Palco Marsh Potty Fire an Act of Protest?
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning the portable toilets in the Bayshore Mall’s north parking lot burnt to almost nothing. So says the press release from Humboldt Bay Fire, which responded to a call at 5:28 a.m. to find the plastic potties completely destroyed by fire. But Richard Marks, who serves on the Humboldt…
Milking It
Reviews DIVERGENT: ALLEGIANT. The horse is long dead, but let’s to it. These dystopian future scenarios, wherein mostly attractive young people are compelled to fight and kill one another, occasionally becoming heroes in the process, felt tired from the jump. Now, umpteen variations on the theme later, it has become painfully evident that there is…
Signs of Spring
Dandelions In a recent exchange on an entomological Facebook page, someone urged me not to destroy the dandelions in my yard. I was told they are one of the first and most persistent sources of pollen and nectar for early emerging insects. The idea that the scourge of the lawnmower set could be so important…
Stucco on You
Editor: I wish to contribute a postscript to Linda Stansberry’s fine, well-written and nicely presented cover story about the Carson Block restoration. It was in 1924 that the building’s street facades were covered with stucco. That “modernizing” was mentioned in a Humboldt Standard newspaper article on June 13, 1924. And, in the August 16, 1924…
Salmon Outlook: Less Fish, Less Fishing
Ocean population forecasts for Chinook salmon are well below last year’s and, due to abnormal ocean conditions, they may be overly optimistic. Accordingly, the commercial, recreational and tribal salmon season alternatives chosen last week by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) are more restrictive than any seen in recent years. The 2016 abundance forecast for…
Played
When each gust of wind grabbed it the web convulsed, its thready grid rolling like one of those animations of a space-time warp. Its sole denizen hunched, hungry, in the refuge of a redwood mooring, senses alit with need, as another windy wave tugged at the dawn’s dew-beads until they dropped from lofty skeins -…
Piecemeal Nullification, Dude
In what can only be considered a decisive win for marijuana enthusiasts, the United States Supreme Court this week struck down a challenge of Colorado’s recreational use law. Attempting to leverage a provision that allows the SCOTUS to mitigate disputes between states, Oklahoma and Nebraska filed a joint suit directly with the nation’s highest court…
Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire
Since you’re a loyal “Setlist” reader, you know I am not above exploiting my children in order to fulfill my word count. In general, I’m just not above exploiting my children. So, not too long ago I found myself showing parts of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival to my 9-year-old son. The context or reasoning…
