A three-day law enforcement sweep of marijuana grow sites on Yurok Tribal lands last week yielded 13,000 plants, 300 pounds, seven guns, zero arrests and a very short press release. The Sheriff’s Office identified suspects and will seek arrest warrants, according to a press release: From 07-21-2014 to 07-24-2014, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office joined […]
Grant Scott-Goforth
Grant Scott-Goforth was an assistant editor and staff writer for The Journal from 2013 to 2017.
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Poo-pooing Pot Ads
The National Guard has been called in to assist a massive bust on Yurok Tribal lands. Seventy marijuana grows are being targeted for “eradication,” according to a press release from the tribe, in response to concerns about widespread environmental and cultural damage caused by the grows. A Los Angeles Times reporter has been following the […]
Posted inNews
Alderpoint Homicide Suspect Caught Following Second Shooting
Rancho Sequoia homicide suspect Matthew Aaron Brown was captured by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office this morning after another apparent fatal shooting Monday night. According to a sheriff’s office press release, residents of the area were looking for Brown when one of them was shot. When deputies arrived on scene, one man was found dead […]
Posted inNews
West End Road Fire Kills One
An 86-year-old man died in a house fire on West End Road Sunday morning. Jack Wilson, who lived at the home on the 9000 block of West End Road, died in the fire, Coroner Dave Parris confirmed today. The coroner’s office suspects Wilson died of accidental smoke inhalation, and Parris said the Arcata Fire Protection […]
Posted inNews
Tax Delinquent Arkley Properties Paid Off in Eleventh Hour
If you’ve trained your eye not skip over those black and white legal notices in the back of the Journal like we have, you may have noticed a big long list of tax-delinquent properties that ran in June. Nearly 200 property owners around the county had failed, in the last five years, to pay property […]
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State of Jefferson
There’s life back in Jefferson School. A couple of years ago, the burgeoning warmth that now fills the hallways, classrooms, kitchen and grounds could only be imagined. Now, the chatter of school kids echoes down the hallways on a foggy summer afternoon. Heidi Benzonelli, co-director of the Westside Community Improvement Association, which purchased and is […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Synth Banned
Synthetic weed. Let that sink in for a minute. Talk about complicating things. A small, brightly colored foil packet — like ones filled with vitamin powder — labeled “Not For Human Consumption.” Inside, some kind of dried, ground-up organic matter, doused in some chemical, concocted in some lab, meant to mimic THC. Sound sketchy? Yes, […]
Posted inNews
Returned Artifacts Come With Poisonous Problems
The Hoopa Tribal museum is host to hundreds of cultural artifacts, but many among those returned to the tribe after a law passed in the 1990s made it easier for Native American communities to get their property back are dangerous to handle. During the 19th and 20th centuries, archaeologists, collectors and museums doused Native American […]
Posted inNews
Hidden on Public Land
While there’s little debate that marijuana grows on public land are hazardous to the public and the environment, there is some strife between environmental groups and the agencies that are charged with monitoring those lands. At the heart of that dispute is just how much the U.S. Forest Service knows about “trespass grows,” and whether […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Free Pot, Free Pot Research!
In a move sure to surprise no Rush listeners, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously earlier this month to give city residents free pot. The granola-friendly East Bay burb, which has been a den of radical political leanings since the 1960s, couldn’t wait to make it even easier for its bobble-headed population of hippies, freegans […]
Posted inNews
Hog Riled
Humboldt County’s pigs recently got a stay of execution, of sorts. A blessing for them, perhaps, but a whole trough of trouble for the many local hog raisers who lost the only nearby slaughterhouse capable of turning pigs into retail-worthy pork. Humboldt County is home to a host of hog raisers, backyard farmers and small-scale […]
Posted inNews
Faces of Humboldt Photo Contest
What’s in a Face? All five senses dwell there, competing for the mind’s attention. Your emotions are most acutely expressed by the twitch of your cheek and brow muscles. The face is a translator, making each of us fluent in the universal human language. You wear your history on your face — the blessings and […]