Janell Hodges refers to the time between beginning her quest to become a teacher and her eventual triumph as one of life’s seasons. It was a season in which she became a mother, adopting her first son Samuel in 2006, and finding out he had special needs that required extra care and multiple surgeries. She […]
Linda Stansberry
Linda Stansberry was a staff writer of the North Coast Journal from 2015 to 2018. She is a frequent contributor the the Journal and our other publications.
Posted inNews
UPDATE: Earthquake Damage to Grandstands Jeopardizes Fate of Humboldt County Fair
UPDATE: An emergency meeting of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday to discuss the earthquake-caused damage to the grandstands at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds and possible actions, including the county creating an agreement with a contractor and having them work directly with engineering firm KPFF, which conducted […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Heroine Withdrawal
HIGH DESERT. Maybe we don’t need another detective series. Maybe every red herring has been fileted by now and it’s time to call it a day. I have watched a lot of TV. It has all been done. Around the time a psychic detective solved a murder by seeing through the eyes of a haunted […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Without an Exclusive Second Week, Fair Racing Faces Competition
Horseracing at the 2023 Humboldt County Fair will once again overlap with races at Golden Gate Fields for the second week of the fair after four out of five California Horse Racing Board commissioners voted to keep the status quo. Jim Morgan, special counsel to the Humboldt County Fair, and others consider the competition for […]
Posted inNews
Duffy Tapped as Interim Fair GM
The Humboldt County Fair Association is under new — if temporary — leadership. The association board voted March 13 to approve the hire of retired Humboldt Waste Management Authority Executive Director and former county Fifth District Supervisor Jill Duffy as the association’s interim general manager. Duffy officially started the job March 15, succeeding Rich Silacci, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Glass Onion‘s Layered Craftsmanship
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY. What makes a movie a Christmas movie? I recently listened to a podcast in which a host floated the idea that the best holiday movies are ones that encourage reflection on the past year and prepare us for the year ahead. They were inspired by watching It’s a Wonderful […]
Posted inNews
Profit and Pain
On Monday, Sept. 25. California Gov. Gavin Newsom formally rejected Assembly Bill 2079. Authored by Assemblymember Jim Wood, the bill would have required skilled nursing facilities to spend a minimum of 85 percent of revenue received from MediCal and private payers on the direct care of residents. A.B. 2079 was a response to the rampant practice […]
Posted inNews
The Wall
Cpl. Crystal Landry has a cold. It’s just a sinus thing, she says, something she picked up from one of the other officers on last week’s shift. She blots her nose with a tissue and pecks at the keyboard of her computer, typing a Be On the Lookout for a stolen dirt bike. “They took […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Claiming Races and Maidens
Cindy Olsen-Bugenig doesn’t count on how many horses are coming to the races at the Humboldt County Fair until she “can see the whites of their eyes crossing Fernbridge.” Olsen-Bugenig, herself a racing horse owner and breeder since 1979, is the vice-president of the Humboldt County Fair Association and chair of its Racing Committee. The […]
Posted inNews
UPDATED: Arson Suspected in Mattole Valley Logging Equipment Fire
CalFire has launched an arson investigation after an excavator caught fire on California State Park property near Honeydew yesterday afternoon. A witness allegedly saw two people near the John Deere excavator shortly before flames took off in the grease and oil of the machine’s undercarriage, allegedly the result of a road flare pitched underneath it. […]
Posted inNews
Burning the Buckeye
The scariest thing about prescribed burns — to me — is not the flames. It’s the people. This is what I explained to my friends when they asked about our plans for the 109-acre Buckeye Ridge Burn, a project funded by a CalFire Climate Change Investment grant awarded to the Save the Redwoods League. Save […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
How to Run Your Life Like a Public Meeting
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us, well, me. We have a very full agenda tonight and I’d like to end by 9 p.m. so I can clear the chambers and watch a show about gentle British people baking elaborate desserts without a running commentary for once. In our report out of closed […]