Vegetables most commonly contaminated: Sprouts Spinach Tomatoes Lettuce Cucumbers Most common food-borne pathogens: E. coli Campylobacter Salmonella Sources of contamination: E. coli – fecal matter (runoff, animals, contaminated water, unwashed hands) Campylobacter – possibly more than 50 percent of chickens are infected, in addition to wild birds and cows (spread through direct contact […]
Zach St. George
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Doubts about Sprouts
With sprouts from an organic farm sickening thousands in Europe, farmers here in Humboldt County say they are the front line — perhaps the only line — of defense against diseases that can hitch a ride on the healthiest of foods. Those wholesome veggies that should be filling every plate can carry an invisible cargo […]
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Tight Squeeze
McKinleyville trucker Randy Jones is opposed to widening Hwy. 101 through Richardson Grove, but it’s not the trees he’s worried about; it’s his business. His trucks are the right length to navigate the stretch as is; realigning the road would allow big company rivals into Humboldt County. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) project remains […]
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Pound of Flesh
New bail scheduling for Humboldt County drastically raises the stakes on marijuana-related felony arrests, making it more expensive in some cases to bail out on a marijuana possession charge than on such crimes as violent felonies against the elderly, battery of a police officer and involuntary manslaughter. The scheduling, which has been in effect since […]
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You Are Here
Owner Denise Daskal leans against the front counter of Orange Cup Coral Salon and Spa in Arcata and looks out the window. Her salon is wedged between Industrial Electrical Services and Earth’s Store, an exotic imports retailer, on a particularly drab stretch of Samoa Boulevard. The white leather chairs, circular mirrors, and slick IKEA shelving […]
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Down the Road
For now, work continues as usual at the Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC) facility in Samoa, but unemployment looms large in the minds of its 35 employees. Barring an unlikely reversal, a new deal will send Humboldt’s bottles, cans, newsprint, and other recyclables rumbling down Hwy. 101 to Willits, taking those jobs along with them. […]
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Flake Out
Not long ago, the giant Humboldt Flakeboard factory on West End Road in Arcata bustled with workers processing the leftovers from the lumber mills into particleboard. Now the cavernous building is empty, unlit and silent save for a low electrical hum. A thick layer of sawdust covers belts and saw blades and muffles the sound […]
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Dock of the Bay
A white gull, heedless of the rain, slept atop the last in a row of gray concrete columns that jut from the water in front of Eureka’s Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center. The green algae rings where the columns meet the bay falsely suggest advanced age, bringing to mind the dilapidated wooden pilings scattered throughout Humboldt […]
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Just A Drill
Loaders, tractors, and dump trucks lined 7th Streets above Arcata City Hall on Friday morning, buffered by orange traffic cones where they stuck out into the bike lane. It was a hasty job. Truck beds were left open. Windows were left cracked. An Ingersoll Rand compressor sat with its hitch against the ground, and a […]
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Muddling Through
Unemployment is up, incomes are low, and poverty levels are high — but local experts suggest that the recession in Humboldt could have been worse — and maybe it isn’t even that bad. Dennis Mullins is a research analyst at the Labor Market Information Division in Eureka. “There’s kind of a sense that things are […]
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Farmers Honked Off at Once-Cooked Goose
A gaggle of Aleutian Cackling geese grazed outside of the visitor center at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, 10 miles south of Eureka. The gray and black waterfowl promenaded slowly over the lawn, plucking beakfulls of grass. Behind the visitor center thousands more dotted the sun-lit fields and sloughs of the refuge, and their […]