After Grant Scott-Goforth’s parting shot last week debunking the racist connotations of the word “marijuana,” it seemed only fitting to follow up with another column blatantly pandering to the etymology nerds in our readership. We were initially intrigued by the word “bong,” which, according to an online etymology dictionary, comes from the Thai word “baung,” […]
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.
Let Your Kids Drink and Pick Up the Tab…For EPD
It’s high school graduation time, and the kids are ready to cut loose. They’re going to drink anyway, you reason, so shouldn’t they be doing it in the safety of your home? NO, says the Eureka Police Department. Thanks to a social host liability law, passed by the Eureka City Council in 2014, you could […]
Man Found Drowned Two Months After Disappearance
Paul Michael Martin, 22, of Hoopa, is the second confirmed drowning death of 2016. Martin went missing April 6 after jumping into the Trinity River near Tish Tang Campground. The swift current quickly swept him away, along with two of his friends. The friends were rescued. A press release sent today by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s […]
TL;DR: Five Things You Need to Know About This Week’s Cover Story
Busy week? We get it. Here’s what you might have missed from this week’s cover story, “Slow Roll.“ 1. The thing most Humboldt folks say they love best about where we live is our wild places – the forests, beaches and trails. But this important resource is largely inaccessible to those in our community who […]
Slow Roll
We aren’t beloved for our nightlife, our restaurant scene or weather. No, when asked what the best thing is about our corner of the world, most people have the same answer: the outdoors. We love our redwood forests, rivers and beaches. But sometimes we get so enraptured with the view we fail to see what’s […]
Drowning Near Holmes Flat First of the Year
A Fortuna man was this year’s first confirmed drowning victim, according to the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office. Timothy Hatten, 33, was reportedly trying to rescue two children when he succumbed to the current, according to an interview with Hatten’s family on the SoHum blog Redheaded Blackbelt. The children were reportedly pulled from the water by […]
Back When Celebrities Judged How Hot Your Teenager Was
As we trawled through some old Eureka High School yearbooks for vintage photos of Jimmy Smith for this week’s issue, we stumbled on this bygone custom: writing to the hottest celebrity of the day and asking him or her to determine the most pulchritudinous of Eureka’s young students. In honor of the Sequoia Spring Dance, […]
Bye, Bye Night Sky
Dear neighbors, We live in a lonely place. When I was a kid, I’d sit on our porch with only the radio for company and let the big dark swallow me up. The mountains that framed the Mattole Valley bit into the star-strewn sky like dark, crooked teeth. That wild land, owned by the Bureau […]
Jimmy Smith 1948-2016
Former Humboldt County 1st District Supervisor Jimmy Smith — a man revered as much for his kindness as his work ethic — died May 24 at St. Joseph Hospital after a long fight with cancer. He was 67. Smith, who tirelessly served the 1st for more than a decade and had struggled with and largely […]
Friends of Jimmy Smith Gather to Mourn
There were more jeans than heels, and half the parking lot was filled with pickup trucks. The line of cars stretched down the small main street of Fields Landing, and the parking lot in front of the boat launch named in honor of the man everyone knew as Jimmy filled with mourners. A strong, persistent […]
Garberville Court Closed Due to Mold
The Garberville branch of the Humboldt County Superior Court has been closed due to mold issues, reports Humboldt 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell. A recent inspection confirmed that there was enough mold in the walls to constitute a health threat. The Garberville court is an arraignment, pretrial court on criminal misdemeanor matters and other low-level […]
Former County Employee Wins Gender-Discrimination Case
Steve Hughes says there’s at least one positive outcome to his being passed over for promotion after a 26-year career with Humboldt County’s Employee Training Division. “I have an idea what discrimination feels like,” he says. Discrimination was something Hughes knew a lot about professionally. He was his division’s equal employment officer and disability program […]
