An Absence of Abalone
North Coast recreational fishery closed until 2036 as recovery remains elusive
Cover Story
An Absence of Abalone
North Coast recreational fishery closed until 2036 as recovery remains elusive Unless conditions change dramatically in the interim, the North Coast’s iconic recreational red abalone fishery will remain closed for at least another decade. The move made official by a unanimous vote of the California Fish and Game Commission on Dec. 11 had been on…
The Ghost of Christmas Present
The morning holds its breath as each day begins with the uncertainty of whether the first exhalation will be expressed as a sigh or a scream. Or maybe all and more, with laughter filling out a frightening new combination. The news is just awful all the time, isn’t it? Everything we understood in years past…
Cal State University Unions Seek Notice of Federal Subpoenas in Antisemitism Investigation
Sworn statements detail CSU employee concerns, including at CPH, amid U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter. California State University is caught between a federal government eager to investigate alleged antisemitism and employees concerned about privacy. That dilemma has landed the nation’s largest four-year public…
Throw a Potato Party
A couple months ago, I received a mysterious summons with strict instructions for secrecy. “There is no Potato Club,” it read. I will not divulge the identities of the guests or the hostess here. We were invited for an evening of starchy revelry among women, a potluck to which we’d each bring a topping for…
Embracing the Long Night of the Winter Solstice
It seems much of the Northern Hemisphere is collectively irritated at the cold and lengthening darkness. Every year, complaints roll in as if the Earth has personally offended us by tilting its northern half away from the sun for an entire quarter of the year. Yet this tilt, this predictable and essential cosmic rhythm, is…
The Titaneer
It’s still dark when I reach the trailhead at Jedediah Smith Redwoods. I’d hoped to be the first person at the Grove of Titans before dawn, but a single Subaru beat me to it. On the trail, in the blue-gray light, I spot a man moving mindfully along the trail with a trash picker in…
Mother Christmas
Oh. What. Fun. and If I Had Legs I Would Kick You OH. WHAT. FUN. I probably don’t need to defend my undimming affection for Christmas movies, but I am of a defensive, decking-the-halls extraction, so here we find ourselves. I am as aware of all the hypocrisy and bad faith action and indelicate consumerism…
Deadline Extended to Support Eel River Dam Removal
PG&E has submitted an application to surrender its license for the Potter Valley Project (PVP), and to remove the two defunct dams in the Eel River headwaters. This is a smart economic move, as the project has not generated electricity for over four years, and what was produced over the last 20 years was less…
Soulstice
Fall has fallen The twilit light The day neatly folded into night White wintry eve The silent loon The frostbit fingernail called the moon The world is cold, my son, and bare And this, our darkest even of the year, May seem to cling forever near But feel this heart, its warmth, its care It…
