Editorial

Journalism awards — selected by our peers at newspapers throughout the state — are always welcome. By no means are they the goal or the motivation, but once received, it’s a nice affirmation to have a group of judges look at your work and how it stacks up against those of other similar papers throughout […]

As Humboldt County passed the somber anniversary of its first COVID-19 death on May 17 — marking a year that saw at least 42 local residents die with the disease — we sat awash in a swirl of emotions. First, there’s the incalculable loss. This was felt most acutely as we talked to the friends […]

It’s rare that our personal health decisions are so public or that we’re so constantly confronted with their communitywide ramifications. It’s also rare that a newspaper reporter’s life is so unavoidably intertwined with the subject they’re covering. But we live in unprecedented times, so on the morning of April 23, I dropped my daughter off […]

It’s not that the murder of eight people in Atlanta on March 16 didn’t shock. Even after so many mass shootings and a widely reported spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, the news that the suspect, a 21-year-old white man, had driven to three Asian-owned spas and killed Douyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Paul […]

We are sad to report that Robert “Bob” Hager — a U.S. Army veteran who detailed his journey from homeless to housed for the Journal — has taken his last walk. Bob died of a heart attack July 24, 2020, alone but surrounded by four walls in his own home, the Journal has learned. He […]

It’s understandable if you missed it. After all, the bombshell report dropped on New Year’s Eve amid a torrent of headlines about surging COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, as well the president’s election denial, just days before an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol turned the world on its head. But the Washington Post published a devastatingly […]

There’s no escaping the fact that on Jan. 6 five people died over a lie. This is indisputable. The president of the United States spawned the first lie, insisting falsely that it was only widespread fraud and theft that kept him from a landslide election victory on Nov. 3. Others repeated it. The next lie […]

Imagine you’re driving down an unfamiliar country highway at night, the kind lined with forests and hillsides and without cell service, as you notice your fuel gauge ticking down. Do you wait until the “get fuel” light ticks on before deciding to pull off at the next gas station? Better to gas up at the […]

As this edition of the Journal went to press, winter had not yet officially begun. And we find that metaphorically significant. The weather has turned cold and wet as our county’s COVID-19 caseload continues to spike dramatically, with Humboldt County having confirmed 423 new infections through the first 15 days of December and four new […]

While it may feel otherwise, it wasn’t that long ago that Humboldt County’s neighborhoods stirred nightly around 8 p.m., enlivened by howls and shrieks as people left their kitchen tables and couches to step outside onto their stoops and porches, into their yards and back alleys. While it was part of a worldwide ritual started […]

In some ways, it feels like an eternity has passed in the eight months since we first used these pages to urge Humboldt County residents to take the COVID-19 pandemic deadly serious. It seems like forever since we’ve been able to invite friends into our homes for a meal, travel to visit relatives, drop our […]