ACLU to Honor Public Defender’s Office with ‘Perseverance’ Award
The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is having its annual meeting tonight at Arcata’s D Street Neighborhood Center, during which it will present its annual Patriot Award to the Humboldt County Public Defender’s Office “in recognition of the difficult year” it just finished. “The county almost destroyed the public defender’s office last…
Trusted Weatherman Jim Bernard has Died
Jim Bernard, the popular, longtime Channel 3 meteorologist who was also an air traffic controller at the Arcata-Eureka airport has died, the television station announced. He was 64. Trusted for his accurate forecasts and known for referring to viewers as “weather fans,” Bernard stepped down from the job in 2012 after a neurological disease began…
Another One Leaves the Bench: Judge Feeney to Retire
Judge John T. Feeney today announced he is retiring effective Feb. 28 after more than 20 years on the bench in Humboldt County. Over the years, Feeney has presided over some of the region’s most notorious cases, including the 2016 murder trial of Gary Lee Bullock, who was convicted in the brutal torture death of…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Jan. 24
Arthur Janov’s primal therapy method of sounding out repressed trauma through raw emotional output is one of those ideas that gathered most of its steam through championing by famous musicians. And like a lot of those fads, it sounds like a bunch of hogwash to me with perhaps a pearl (amongst the swine) of wisdom.…
About That Alaskan Quake This Morning …
If you are like a lot of people in Humboldt County, you woke up this morning to find out a massive earthquake off the Alaskan coast had triggered a tsunami watch but it was already over. Local emergency officials want residents to know that they were at the ready to set the alarm after today’s…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Jan. 23
The binge and purge method of partying and spiritual redemption was a favorite method of maintaining a healthy chi in my more elastic 20s. Blame it on living in New Orleans but I actually think indulgence followed by abstention can benefit the body electric. Phatsy Kline’s Parlor Lounge has its own (albeit weekly and decidedly…
The World is Shrinking: An interview with Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s Albert Mazibuko
Iconic South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo comes to Humboldt State University’s Van Duzer Theatre on Thursday, Jan. 25. Setlist columnist Collin Yeo interviewed longtime member of the group Albert Mazibuko via email about the evolution of the group and its mission in the world. NCJ: Your cousin Joseph retired from touring in…
Judge Reinholtsen Announces Retirement
Dale A. Reinholtsen is preparing to finish his 21-year career as a Humboldt County superior court judge. The press release from the court sets his retirement date for the end of December, when his current term will come to a close. Reinholtsen has presided over several high-profile Humboldt County cases, including a 2002 suit by…
Huffman Says No to Stopgap Bill for ‘Sh*tdown’
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman once again took the Republican majority to task for its “colossal failure to govern” in a statement today about his reasons for voting against a short-term spending bill to end the government shut-down — or “sh*tdown,” as he’s called it — at least for the time being. In a release,…
Humboldt Municipal Water Board Ready to Appeal Planning Commission Decision
John Friedenbach, general manager of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, told the Journal today that his agency plans to appeal the Humboldt County Planning Commission’s Jan. 12 decision to recommend rezoning of a parcel adjacent to the Mad River in Glendale. The property, owned by the Mercer Fraser Co., is currently in use as…
Music Tonight: Monday, Jan. 22
Ataraxia, that tranquil state of lucid calm and health so highly valued by the Stoics and other ancient Greek thinkers, seems like one of those ideas that is difficult to articulate but universally obvious when in practice. The often misunderstood philosopher Epicurus seemed to believe that a very clear route to the nirvana-junior state of…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Jan. 21
Moving from Medieval European madness — Saint Vitus dance, anyone? — to a thread that stretches both backward and forward, dance has been an ecstatic ritual from pre-historical times to the post-truth period in which we unfortunately now live (you know what you’ve done, Right Wing Media). Uniting the sacred and the profane, the soul…
Back in Pink
On Saturday, Jan. 20, Madaket Plaza at the foot of C Street was packed with participants for Eureka’s second Women’s March. Last year, the multi-city protest following the inauguration of Donald Trump drew between 6,000 and 7,000 people, the largest crowd of marchers in Eureka’s history. This year’s event, which was a somewhat last-minute affair,…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Jan. 20
Medieval European wellness habits were fairly terrible and might seem, to modern readers, antithetical to the promotion of actual health and well-being. From bloodletting and trepanning to medicines taken from the animal kingdom — dung compresses for festering wounds and boar bile enemas for general upkeep (shout out to Dr. Kellogg) — the ancient Greek-obsessed…
Huffman Blames Republicans for ‘Sh*tdown’
Shortly after Congress sent the federal government spiraling toward a shutdown by failing to pass a continuing funding resolution tonight, North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman sent out a statement blasting Republicans, laying blame for the “sh*tdown” squarely at their feet. Earlier today, Huffman voted against the continuing resolution that passed the House and would have…
Judge Allows Squireses’ Building to Be Condemned, Sets Hearing On Process
Judge Dale Reinholtsen today declined to block the city of Eureka’s order to vacate a dilapidated apartment building owned by Floyd and Betty Squires, meaning the 15 tenants of 833 H St. will need to be out by Monday. The Squireses had requested a temporary restraining order to restrict city officials from entering any of…
Music Tonight: Friday, Jan. 19
Your heart beats roughly 40,000,000 times in one year. More if you are stressed out, have emotional malfunctions or health issues, or drug problems. It beats fewer times if you exercise regularly and keep in peak athletic shape, and much less if you are dead. So every anniversary isn’t just another year of time notched…
Award-Winning Eel River Documentary Screens Tomorrow in Eureka
The North Coast will get the chance tomorrow to take an up-close look at the Eel River, its history and its uncertain future. A River’s Last Chance, an award-winning documentary by Shane Anderson, will screen at the Eureka Theater at 7 p.m., to be followed by a panel discussion with Anderson, co-producer Jason Hartwick and…
Eureka Women’s March
Still takin’ it to the streets. Get out your neon poster board and extra wide Sharpie and trek down to Madaket Plaza (the foot of C Street) for this year’s Eureka Women’s March on Saturday, Jan. 20 from 1 to 4 p.m. (free). The event takes place in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington,…
Moving Movement
Captivating, engaging, transcendent. Butoh, the Japanese theater-dance form known for its striking visual imagery and slow, hyper-controlled movement, is disturbing and beautiful in the way that art should be. And Humboldt is fortunate to get a taste of it when the inaugural Humboldt Butoh Festival takes place Jan. 19-21 at Synapsis Nova in Old Town.…
High Surf Closes Bay Entrance
The United States Coast Guard captain of the port has closed the entrance to Humboldt Bay due to high surf, the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Service wrote in a Tweet this afternoon. The National Weather Service issued a high surf warning this morning, in effect until 10 p.m., predicting waves up to 32 feet…
Women’s March is Taking to the Streets of Eureka
The Women’s March of Eureka will the hit the streets between 2 and 4 p.m. on Saturday and, while streets won’t be closed, expect some delays near Second and Third streets between H and M streets and on First Street between C and H streets. Last year’s event, held in conjunction with hundreds across the…
Rag Doll Revue Presents The Legends Show
Missing Merle? Wishing Amy was still buzzing around with her beehive? Legends who left us too soon come back for a night when Rag Doll Revue presents The Legends Show on Friday, Jan. 19 at 10 p.m. at Humboldt Brews ($13, $10 advance). The troupe pays tribute to Amy Winehouse, Robin Williams, Merle Haggard and…
Huff Asks Interior to Remove California from Drilling Plan
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman joined a pair of his colleagues today in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke opposing the administration’s recently released draft offshore oil drilling plan and specifically requesting that it remove California. The letter leans heavily on Zinke’s rationale for removing Florida from the plan —…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Jan. 18
Here’s a health tip: Avoid corporate compost and favor the homegrown, backyard variety. It’s easy to quality control the ingredients when they come out of your own kitchen and the process can even be fun. In fact, it might save your life. According to a 2015 study at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, more than…
Tastes Okay to Me
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Healthcare Access is a Human Right
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Dying and Destitute
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Trump Warning
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A Healthy Investment
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HumBug: By the River and Under the Sand
Here we are, middle of winter and once again I’m finding variegated meadowhawk dragonflies along the Van Duzen River, where I regularly walk. Although this is a small dragonfly, it is the largest insect I see flying this time of year. I find them perched on rocks in open sections of river bar, often 20…
A Year After the Women’s March
Last year at this time, I was preparing for the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. — crossing the country to don my “pussy hat” and raise my fist alongside my 80-year-old mother and my 18-year-old daughter. A loud contingent of people — both in person and on social media — asked me, “What’s the point…
Cannabis Cocktails for Beginners
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A Tale of Two Tragedies
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Ladysmith Black Mambazo Hits JVD
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, South Africa’s Grammy Award-winning a cappella group that shot to worldwide fame and acclaim when it appeared on Paul Simon’s Graceland, brings its soothing songs, dynamic traditional Zulu footwork and message of peace to the Van Duzer Theatre on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. ($49).
