Here’s a preview of all the scintillating stories and fascinating factoids you’ll find in this week’s paper: On the cover, Heidi Walters comes out of the woods with the California Department of Fish and Game and hits the asphalt running. Walters examines the new role the DFG is playing in urban planning. It’s the perfect […]
Japhet Weeks
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Tsunami Test: Your Questions Answered
This is only a test. … Yesterday’s California Report features an interview with James Goltz, head of the earthquake and tsunami program for the governer’s Office of Emergency Services. He discusses yesterday’s Tsunami warning test, the first of its kind in the state. Goltz says that “Humboldt county is probably one the most tsunami prepared […]
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Who Killed Martin Cotton?
More than six months after the death of Martin Frederick Cotton II, it’s still hard to say for sure what exactly killed the 26-year-old. At one point it was believed that he might have died of a rare overdose of LSD. Or that he killed himself by banging his head against a jail cell floor. […]
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Sovereign Immunity: More Blue Lake Rancheria Blues
Yes, the Blue Lake Rancheria is using its sovereign immunity to defend itself again, this time from an angry California resident who sued the construction company that had done shoddy work when building her home, only to realize that the homebuilder had been sold to the tribe. And once again the Rancheria doesn’t seem to […]
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EPA Reverses Prior Decision, Declares Klamath River Impaired by Toxic Algae
In a press release sent out this morning, the Klamath Riverkeepers claim to have won a “major concession” today from the Environmental Protection Agency. In a reversal of their prior decision, the EPA has now designated the Klamath River as impaired by toxic algae. The blue green algae, Microcystis aeruginosa, blooms in reservoirs created by […]
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Should Thompson Change His Superdelegate Vote?
The Napa Valley Register is asking its readers to chime in on whether Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, should endorse Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama with his superdelegate vote (right now, he’s pledged it to Clinton). However, the February primaries indicate that the First District favors Obama over Clinton. (For an idea of the how […]
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The Not-So-Peaceful Atom
On a summer day in 1969,Bob Rowen, a nuclear control technician at the Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant, realized that for his employer, Pacific Gas and Electric, the bottom line was everything — it was even more important than the community’s safety. It wasn’t the first time Rowen, a burly former Marine, had witnessed safety […]
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Lust, Caution
DVD, directed by Ang Lee Universal Lust, Cautionis Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s second movie with a comma in the title (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). It’s also his second film about two people cautious to engage in what is ultimately destructive love (think Brokeback Mountain). In Lust, Caution Lee combines the acrobatics of the first film […]
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Urine Trouble Now …
The Associated Press reported that a Crescent City woman is facing three years in prison after allegedly trying to steal back her own urine sample. Krystal Evans and a friend intercepted a DHL van and tried to reclaim her bodily fluid, but they were caught yellow handed. Anyway, it’s a good thing that Evans wasn’t […]
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Pulp Mills, the Chinese and a Pinch of Xenophobia
David Hillman , an independent pulp and paper consultant, wonders if the sale of American pulp mills to foreign investors — mostly Chinese — is good or bad. The analysis is published on-line by the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), which, according their website, manages the world’s leading network of experts. The major implication is that […]
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‘The Phantom Hunters’
In a send-up of Aussie Steve Irwin’s The Crocodile Hunter, Humboldt State University students participating in the Green Campus Program troll Arcata in search of a not-too-rare species of energy waster. [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=KF4UKQVTRTg&feature=related] [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=linZb8aRVyM&feature=related]
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Will America Ever Say Sorry?
Why is it that the world’s greatest democracy has yet to elect a female president? Why was it three decades behind Britain in abolishing slavery? And when, if ever, will it offer a formal apology to its Native American population? Australia’s recently elected prime minister Kevin Rudd — who also happens to speak Chinese (when […]