Cover Story
Bluffing
Are the most vulnerable patients in Humboldt County — the disabled and the elderly — better off here than they would be in skilled nursing facilities hundreds of miles away in Redding or Santa Rosa? For the concerned family members and patient advocates who spent the last four months fighting to keep Brius Healthcare from…
HumBug: Don’t Lick the Newts
Sometimes when I’m out looking for insects to photograph, I see other things. Imagine a creature sporting a neurotoxin hundreds of times more deadly than cyanide in sufficient quantities to kill a full grown man. And it’s common in our area. The Rough Skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa) sports the same toxin that makes the pufferfish…
Little Free Libraries: Giving the Gift of Giving Year Round
If you’re fond of walking down random byways, chances are you’ve stopped to take a second look at one of these charming little boxes, which look a bit like glass-fronted bird houses, perched above fences and bearing plaques with their official charter numbers. Little Free Libraries, a nonprofit organization that started in Wisconsin, sells these…
Pre-New Year’s Eve Blues
You don’t have to wait to send 2016 packing. (And why would you?) Dress in full feather and dance the night away with local musicians Michael Dayvid and Dominic Romano at the Pre-New Year’s Eve Blues event on Tuesday, Dec. 27 from 8 to 10:30 p.m. at Arcata Core Pilates Studio ($5). There’ll be cider…
Humboldt Ice Rink Returns
Baby, it’s cold outside. Cold enough to chatter our teeth but not freeze our lagoons. Don’t let that dash your Cutting Edge dreams, skaters. Head to the Humboldt Ice Rink in Fortuna’s Newburg Park now through Jan. 8 ($12, $8 kids, rental included). See www.humboldticerink.com for the schedule and start carving out those figure eights.
Is This Criminal Assault?
It’s been almost four years since the Eureka Police Department and the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office held a rare joint press conference on April 17, 2013 to announce they’d arrest an EPD sergeant on suspicion of assaulting a 14-year-old during an arrest. Four months earlier, shortly before midnight on Dec. 6, 2012, EPD received…
Mills: Suspect Pointed Gun at Officer Before Being Shot
The 26-year-old Garberville man wounded in a Dec. 6 officer-involved shooting pointed his handgun at an officer before police opened fire, Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills said at a press conference today. Mills spent about 35 minutes walking media through the traffic stop, foot pursuit and ensuing shooting that transpired over 12 tense minutes shortly…
A Little Holiday Help?
Not sure if you made the Nice List this year? Fear not. The Season of Giving offers plenty of opportunity to get in good graces. That sweater Aunt Tilda knitted you three Christmases ago that’s still keeping the hanger warm? Chuck it into a Goodwill box. Winter coats, new socks and canned goods are all…
We give thanks for Donald Trump
Who so clearly illustrates both the magnitude and the specificity Of the work to be done, and for being an acute example of the unexamined life. We give thanks for corporations that (not who) influence our elections with their bottomless coffers for reminding us that democracy is yet an unrealized dream. We give thanks to…
Grow and Die
Until now, “grow or die” has pretty much summed up capitalism. A company that only maintains its present output and profitability will be outgunned by young, flexible, hungry upstarts. Not just in business, either. Larger, expansionist and innovative conglomerations of states and countries out-match smaller ones — the United States is a case in point,…
Puff, Puff, Pence
On Dec. 20, the Humboldt County chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws signed onto a letter to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, asking him for “clarity” regarding the new administration’s plans for Humboldt’s top cash crop. The letter, penned by the national NORML and co-signed by 50 subsidiaries, says there were…
Nasty Women in the Kitchen
Can we agree it’s been a long year? Granted, this statement depends partly on one’s political persuasion. But for roughly half of us (some would say over half), the fatigue that accompanies the holidays is particularly defeating this year. Given the apocalyptic uncertainty in the air, cocktail parties are not the tradition to skip this…
Happy Christmas
At the Murphy’s Market not far from my house this past Sunday, I got to chatting with Noah there about rock music in general and he made the astute point that Christmas seems to be the only holiday that is also a music genre. Christmas music for some may sound like Bing Crosby or Johnny…
Dark Sides
Reviews ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY. An unpleasant combination of factors still leaves me feeling ambivalent about The Force Awakens, even all these months later: the vast and vapid pre-hype; Disney’s marketing push penetrating every sector of consumer culture; the lingering memory of the first round of prequels, then of the re-touched, re-released (it…
Fruit Tree Pruning 101
People often hire me to prune their fruit trees this time of year. While I appreciate the work, most basic pruning, especially on young trees that haven’t been previously damaged or badly pruned, can be done by anyone with some basic information. Now that the leaves have fallen and fruit trees are dormant for the…
Ship Ashore
On a recent Monday morning, a crew stood on the banks of Humboldt Bay and watched with bated breath as a rickety, 200-ton bundle of history and environmental risk was pulled from the water. “It was sinking,” Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District CEO Jack Crider said of the LCI 1091, which had spent…
Dear Shlomo,
I realize you might be a feeling a bit picked on at the moment, seeing our second cover story about your Humboldt County holdings in the last three months. In fact, over the past 16 or so months, we’ve written nearly 20,000 words detailing your doings in Humboldt County. That’s a lot of ink. But…
College Contributions
Editor: While I agree with much of William Hart’s letter concerning student housing in Arcata (Mailbox, Dec. 15), I have to take issue with one sentence. The positives of living in this particular college town are infinitely more than “the four of five coffee shops we have and the five or six bars.” (And I’m…
‘Out of Context’
Editor: The Dec. 8 article by Humboldt State Univeristy investigative reporting students, “Homeless State University,” quoted me as saying that we’ve had nearly 20 years of relatively sparse contact and collaboration between HSU and the city of Arcata in terms of addressing student housing needs, and that the city and university need to collaborate on…
Garbage
Editor: I usually enjoy the North Coast Journal. However, it was a real turn-off to come upon a graphic detail of a sexual act in the Nov. 24 Flash Fiction issue. Not expecting the crudeness, I was soured and concerned that maybe a child would read it, too. Believe me, children of 12 or younger…
‘Debunking’ Trump Change
Editor: I can’t let Rick Brennan’s letter extolling Donald Trump (Mailbox, Dec. 15) go without debunking the cherry-picked factoids he uses to give legitimacy to Trump’s “win.” Stating that six times as many counties voted for Trump as Clinton is like saying the 49ers were ahead at the 40-minute mark in most of their games…
Celebrate the Magic of Reading
Winter break is long, parents. Take the kids to celebrate the magic of reading with Magician Dale Lorzo on Thursday, Dec. 22 at 3 p.m. in the Fortuna Library (free). The Master of Mirth and Magic mixes stories, illusions and games with audience participation. Little ones receive a free book to keep them entertained at…
Best Laid Plans
Need a break before the holidays hit this weekend? Spend some time with a couple of couples at the Eureka Theater and the Arcata Theatre Lounge. Sure, other theaters have the explosion-riddled blockbusters but the aim here is to reduce stress, not add to it. The lines will be shorter, the crowds less frenetic and…
