On Sept. 10, two young American males brought guns to campuses and opened fire. One, perched atop a Utah Valley University roof with a hunting rifle, shot and killed Charlie Kirk, a high-profile extreme right-wing activist. His death has launched an outpouring of grief among public figures, countless speeches and essays lamenting the loss of […]
Editorial
Posted inLetters + Opinion
In Gratitude
This is the 600th edition of the North Coast Journal that I’ve had some hand in publishing as the newspaper’s news editor. It will also be the last. For more than a decade, just about every Tuesday of my life has been consumed with finishing up the week’s paper. It’s been a regular ritual, the […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Real Cost of Eggs
In the runup to the November election, eggs took on an almost mythical status, their price tags acting as both a kind of poster for the Trump campaign and a symbol for Democrats’ perceived inability to speak directly to inflation, the issue we were told most concerned voters. In the election’s final days, the average […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Sunshine, If We Can Keep It
We in Humboldt County know better than most that sunshine isn’t a thing to be taken for granted. As Sunshine Week — an annual March celebration of the importance of government transparency — comes to a close, we want to add our voice to the chorus that has spent the week championing the principles of […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
In the Interest of Full Disclosure
I trend a bit old school in my views of media ethics and reporting. I’m registered to vote without party preference, and I’ve never once put a campaign sign in my yard or donated to a candidate or ballot measure. Generally, I believe anything that so much as creates the appearance of a conflict of […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Unfit in Every Way
We implore you to vote for Kamala Harris for president, and to clearly and strongly encourage everyone in your orbit to do the same. We do this because the only viable alternative is a man who has repeatedly proven himself to be unfit to hold the nation’s highest office. It has been more than a […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
No on F
Thankfully, it’s rare a local item appears on our ballot here in Humboldt County that so perfectly encapsulates so much of what’s wrong with our politics. But enter Measure F, the initiative embodiment of deep-monied special interests, scorched earth tactics, deceitful ad campaigns and the politics of petty vengeance. In the strongest possible terms, we […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
VTY, Not Rob Arkley
We were taught long ago that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are pretty good it’s a duck. The old adage came waddling back amid news late last week that AMG Communities-Jacobs, LLC, pulled out of the controversial $6 million property exchange agreement it’d reached with Eureka City Schools […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Crises of Our Time
Parallel crises that are tightening their grips on the United States year by year, and day by day, collided on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a would-be assassin opened fire on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally. Fortunately, Trump escaped the shooting largely unscathed, save for a wound to his right ear, […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Journal Welcomes California Local News Fellows
We are excited to announce the North Coast Journal was recently selected to be a host newsroom for the 2024 California Local News Fellowship, a state-funded initiative to invigorate local journalism, with a focus on underserved communities. In September, we will welcome recent California State University at Los Angeles graduate Anne To, who also served […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Failed Leadership
In the week leading up to the moment when hundreds of police officers from throughout the state descended on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus before dawn on April 30 to forcibly remove about two dozen protesters, we heard lots of voices. We heard from the protesters themselves, who said they felt compelled to take a […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Our Last Best Chance
Four years ago, we took a stand in these pages that still keeps us up at night from time to time. It was November of 2019 and the Humboldt County Planning Commission was poised to decide whether to permit a company called Terra-Gen’s plans to construct 47 wind turbines along Monument and Bear River ridges […]