U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer has scheduled a change of plea hearing for the Humboldt County Fair Association’s former bookkeeper, signaling she may be nearing a plea agreement to resolve the wire fraud charges facing her. Nina Tafarella, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 11 and faces five counts of […]
News
Posted inNews
Fire Alarm
It’s a sunny Monday morning and Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Sean Robertson and Fire Capt. Brandon Harlander are sitting in a nondescript conference room at the department’s main station on C Street, talking to the Journal as a part of a media outreach campaign to spread the word about what they’re describing as a “staffing […]
Posted inNews
Grand Jury: Eureka Schools Acted ‘Hastily,’ Without Due Diligence
After investigating Eureka City Schools’ decision to offload its former Jacobs Middle School site in a property exchange agreement with a mystery developer, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has issued a report criticizing the district for a lack of transparency and due diligence. “The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury concludes that the Eureka City […]
Posted inNews
No Leftovers
Michael Peterson and his son Nicolas are unloading pillowcase-sized bags of purple Brussels sprouts from their Willow Creek Farm truck. There are boxes of pale green bok choy and sacks of rainbow carrots, too, stacked up outside the entrance to the Harvest Hub run by the North Coast Growers Association (NCGA) on West End Road […]
Posted inNews
Multi-day Juneteenth Event Celebrates a ‘Liberated Future’ of Unity and Diversity
After spending four years celebrating Juneteenth with events aimed at educating the local community, Black Humboldt is shifting its focus to a broader theme of celebrating the Black experience. “Our very first Juneteenth, we just had to have our Black partners trust us, that this is what Black communities did,” says Monique Harper-Desir, the nonprofit’s […]
Posted inNews
Condor Check-in
The North Coast’s 11 condors “looked great” after undergoing recent medical exams, according to an update from the Northern California Condor Restoration Program, a Yurok Tribe-led effort to bring the bird known as prey-go-neesh back to the upper reaches of the endangered species’ former range. The annual spring evaluations are not only an opportunity for […]
Posted inNews
No Safe Parking
It’s a morning in early January and Arcata House Partnership Executive Director Darlene Spoor is addressing the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors at the invitation of Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson. The board is holding a public hearing to consider extending a temporary ordinance making it easier for organizations to open so-called sanctuary parking shelters […]
Posted inNews
Glorified!
The gears ground, the flames shot and teams of Kinetic Grand Championship racers tumbled down the dunes of Dead Man’s Drop and into Humboldt Bay for the water crossing. When the clever contraptions finally passed the finish line on Ferndale’s Main Street after their 50-mile journeys, there were winners and ACE-ers, but all were Glorious. […]
Posted inNews
‘Unprecedented’
Ron Samuels is walking through Marimba One’s sprawling shop off O Street in Arcata. The place is filled with the whir of industrial fans and a constant pinging from five separate tuning stations spread through the facility, where tuners are hitting rosewood keys with custom mallets and grinding layers from their undersides until they find […]
Posted inNews
Grand Jury Recommends Civilian Oversight of Sheriff’s Office
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury is calling on the county to implement a layered system of police oversight of the sheriff’s office similar to a model being used in Eureka. “The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that the board of supervisors establish a civilian oversight board to review, report on and make recommendations […]
Posted inNews
‘False Narratives’
It’s a sunny, cloudless afternoon the day before commencement and Mark Johnson is sitting in a nondescript conference room, its windows shuttered, talking to the North Coast Journal in the Student and Business Services Building at Cal Poly Humboldt. The campus remains quiet and largely vacant two weeks into a “hard closure” instituted in response […]
Posted inNews
Document Sheds Light on Arcata Principal’s Reassignment
Some eight months before the Northern Humboldt Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to relieve Principal Ron Perry of his duties at the end of the school year and reassign him to the classroom, sending shockwaves through the Arcata High School community, the district reprimanded him privately for “not following the law,” the Journal […]