Editor: First, a hearty thank you to Barbra Groom for being willing to recount her knowledge of the events surrounding Andrew Pease’s death ("Witness Recounts Stabbing," Feb. 19). I believe that information helps a struggling community to understand and to decide upon a correct course of action, whatever that may be. Thank you, Ryan Burns, […]
Letters + Opinion
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Hard Times
Crash. Freefall. Nosedive. The terms used to describe what’s happening to the American economy abuse us daily. One can picture the economy cartwheeling through the air, grasping for a parachute cord, whipped by the wind. But "the economy" is abstract — what’s really dropping are people. Into bed, where sleepless nights of worry await. Into […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
De-pressed
I have a to-do list on my desktop right now, and it is troubling me. On the list are six large investigative stories that need doing — that really, really need doing — and except in two cases, tips on those stories have arrived in the last couple of days, long after we planned out […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Eat Your Medicine
Editor: As regards "Mending Broken Hearts" (Feb. 12) — don’t get me started! While I am glad St. Joseph Hospital is looking into improving patient care, these statistics are a great example of why we need not-for-profit health care. Leave it to the nurses to tell the truth about staffing overloads, medication error and patients […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Not a Pretty Picture
Editor: I’d like to respond to the advertisement for the state adoption office’s photo display of foster children ("Arts! Arcata," Feb. 12). Adoption isn’t always a beautiful experience, especially for the adoptee. When the children become adults, they will be discriminated against. I am an adult adoptee, born in the State of California in 1969. […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Gold Star
Editor: I am writing this letter to commend your publication in general, and Ryan Burns in particular, for the outstanding article "Crossing Schools" (Feb. 5). I recently retired from the McKinleyville Union School District where I worked as a third-grade teacher and an assistant principal at Dow’s Prairie School for 21 years. I was one […]
Posted inNews
Giant boo-boo
Planning Commissioner Scott Kelley was misidentified as the commission chair and was said to have a daughter, Sarah, at Zane Middle School in last week’s story, "Giant Circus Tent." In fact, both the chairmanship and the daughter belong to Commissioner Jeff Smith. The Journal‘s Ryan Burns feels like a dipshit about the errors.
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Snow Job
Editor: The suggestion by Hank Sims that critics of the Headwaters Fund Board "tape their mouths shut or jump into the sea in shame" ("Town Dandy," Jan. 29) is a stunning reflection of the snow job perpetrated on Sims and the general media concerning the gift of $500,000 from the Headwaters Fund to the City […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Scenes from our Beheading
Rubbernecking the collapse of the world. The news isn’t all bad! ^^^^^ WINNER! One would be Redwood Capital Bank, which joins Umpqua Bank in the ranks of local financial institutions that have opted into the big Bush bailout bill. Last month, the government of the United States of America bought a $3.8 million stake in […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Report Cards
Editor: Ryan Burns’ story "Crossing Schools" was a pleasant and welcome surprise in your Feb. 5 paper. I have taught at Dow’s Prairie School for 24 years and was expecting to see yet another hit-and-miss effort at understanding the reconfiguration controversy. Instead, Burns presented a well-researched, in-depth survey of the complexity of the issues and […]
Posted inNews
Credit gaffe
Last week’s "Media Maven" erroneously credited The New York Times with uncovering a Central Intelligence Agency-run network of secret offshore prisons for detainees taken in the "war on terror"; in fact, the Washington Post broke that story. The Journal regrets the error.
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Unfit to Print?
Editor: Marcy Burstiner correctly notes that "here in Humboldt, we all seem to complain about the quality of our local newspapers" ("Dark Ages," Feb. 5). But when she lists the newspapers whose "hard-working reporters" without whose work "we wouldn’t have a clue as to what’s happening in our small, isolated world," she omits the Redwood […]