Janie Hubert and Lynne Demarest are both in their 70s and neighbors in a Section 8 apartment building in Eureka’s Old Town. They rely on the elevator to get to the street from their third-floor apartments. But twice this year, it didn’t work — once for three months and then again for two weeks — […]
HSU Investigative Reporting students
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Homeless State University
Squeezed into one room at the Eureka Econo Lodge with her partner, baby and two dogs was the last place Chante Marie Catt thought she would be living when she moved to Humboldt County from Redding to finish her education. “I feel like I failed my family,” said the 37-year-old Humboldt State University sociology major. […]
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Why Your Vote Matters
How we did it In November, Humboldt State University journalism professor Marcy Burstiner was in Spain. She didn’t get her absentee ballot until a couple of weeks before the election. The last of three seats for the Northern Humboldt Unified School District was decided by 21 votes, but her vote wasn’t included. Her ballot was […]
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Queasy Eats
The following report is the result of a months-long investigation by Humboldt State University students enrolled in an advanced reporting class taught by Asst. Professor Marcy Burstiner. Humboldt County loves to eat out. With more than 750 restaurants, food trucks, deli counters and cafeterias, we have almost as many places to get cooked meals per […]
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Permission to Enter
Something was off. One day last year, Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Peterson was patrolling Ettersburg, an area in Southern Humboldt, when he noticed a newly constructed driveway. An unmarked metal livestock gate sat open a few yards from the road. Peterson plugged his GPS coordinates into the computer in his squad car and checked out the […]
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How We Did It
This story was written and reported by the students of JMC 326 at Humboldt State University: Preston Drake-Hillyard, Matt Drange, Carlos Esqueda, J. Daniel Fernadez, Nels Ferre, Brandi Fleeks, Daniel Froloff, Alex Gautreaux, Yelena Kisler, Satoshi Kondo, Molly Lovelady, Mallory Madison, Scott Meyers, Haley Nessler, Desiree Perez, Luke Ramseth, Ahron Sherman, Milo ShumpertAppel, Kaitlin Skeels […]
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Nosing Around
Jeremiah Benton slid from bed and looked out his window when Boss, his albino pit bull, started barking. Outside he saw about a dozen sheriff’s deputies in flak jackets, some with assault rifles. One carried a battering ram. Benton, a 31-year-old Eureka resident, was part of a marijuana collective. About 200 plants grew inside his […]
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When They Don’t Need a Warrant
Police don’t need a warrant if the person living in a residence grants them permission to search. Consider the case of Chris Grumbine. He and three friends smoked some marijuana in Grumbine’s dorm room on the Humboldt State campus when he decided to light some incense. “I wasn’t trying to cover up the smell,” he […]
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A Little Advice
If you want to keep your illegal arsenal of guns, don’t brandish them at your neighbors. WHY? That’s why police were called to a house in Hoopa. If you steal a refrigerator don’t leave a receipt with your name on it behind. WHY? That’s what police found after someone burglarized a community center in […]
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Search and seizure in the age of text messaging
While searching an apartment off of L.K. Wood in Arcata in January of this year, special agents from the Humboldt County Drug Task Force discovered a cell phone. As the agents searched the phone for contacts, a text message came in from an Ohio-area phone number. The following messages detail the conversation once the agents […]
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Meltdown
In January, journalism students from HSU, as part of an investigative reporting class taught by Asst. Professor Marcy Burstiner, set out to understand why public agencies would suddenly shut down a long-standing business central to the North Coast fishing industry. They filed public records requests with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Department of […]
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A History of Troubles at Eureka Ice
March 14, 1994 A failed pipe nipple at Eureka Ice releases 764 lbs. of anhydrous ammonia over 1 1/2 hours. April 4, 1997 A routine inspection finds that workers had been improperly disposing of anhydrous ammonia into an outside floor drain. Feb. 2, 2002 Eureka Ice is evacuated after a strong smell of ammonia and […]