When Humboldt was selected as one of nine California counties to participate in a prosecutor-led resentencing pilot project, it was cause for celebration in the Public Defender’s Office. Not only would a new state law give the district attorney’s office the authority to ask the court to re-sentence convicts who are either serving exorbitant prison […]
News
Posted inNews
A Question of Precedence
In the November 2022 election, voters in Arcata faced a seemingly simple question: Should the Earth flag fly at the top of city-owned flagpoles? “It’s time to recognize the primacy of the Earth over nations and states when we fly their symbols on our town square,” Measure M’s ballot text stated in part. “We cannot […]
Posted inNews
Corporate Abuse, Environmental Harm Dominate Project Censored Top 10 Stories of 2023
“We have made the planet inhospitable to human life.” That’s what the lead researcher in Project Censored‘s number one story this year said. He wasn’t talking about the climate catastrophe. He was talking about so-called “forever chemicals,” per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, as well as additional health risks, […]
Posted inNews
Former Fair Bookkeeper Arrested by FBI in Embezzlement Case
Former Humboldt County Fair Association bookkeeper Nina Tafarella was arrested by the FBI on a federal wire fraud warrant in Los Angeles County late last month and is free after posting $15,000 bail, according to court records. Reached by the Journal on Nov. 29, a week after her arrest, Tafarella declined to comment for this […]
Posted inNews
Flash Fiction 2023
Ninety-nine words don’t sound like enough to draw you in, take you on a narrative trip, change your perspective or sketch a biography, but they can be. Entries in the Journal‘s annual Flash Fiction Contest always run the gamut: stick-ups, budding romances, mysteries, reunions and dystopian futures populated by killers and ghosts, scientists and thieves. […]
Posted inNews
‘Game Changer’
When the spring semester begins at Cal Poly Humboldt, a group of newly enrolled students in the university’s Department of Communication will be taking their seats. But instead of sitting in a classroom at the Arcata campus nestled in the redwoods, they’ll be 85 miles north, behind the walls of Pelican Bay State Prison in […]
Posted inNews
PG&E Moves Forward with Eel River Dam Removal
It now looks like two iconic North Coast rivers will flow dam free by the end of the decade. Just weeks after the first of four dams was removed from the Klamath River as a part of what will be the largest dam removal effort in the nation’s history, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. filed […]
Posted inNews
Inside Bayview Heights
It’s a brisk, bright morning in early fall on Eureka’s Fifth Street, where a small group of veterans have gathered in one of the common rooms at Bayview Heights, a new three-story apartment complex painted in a geometric pattern of army and olive green. Five of them sit around a small dining table in a […]
Posted inNews
‘Reclaiming Their Ancestral Lands’
Editor’s note: While it took a little time, the three new condors were successfully released into the wild. The two females, B2 followed by B0, ventured out Wednesday, where they were greeted by the entire flock at the release management site and got some quick introductions to the hierarchical nature of life as a condor. […]
Posted inNews
‘Upside Down’
Maddy Montiel was between classes on the morning of Oct. 25, about eight weeks shy of graduating from Cal Poly Humboldt with an environmental science and management degree, when their phone buzzed with a text message from their friend and neighbor Brad Butterfield. “They’re kicking us out,” Butterfield wrote, the “they” referring to campus administration […]
Posted inNews
Gold Rush Outpost Now in Native Hands
Founded during the mid-1800s gold rush, the Salmon River Outpost is situated along a winding road in the mountains of Northern California. Once, it was a gathering place where miners and settlers bought supplies while pursuing a dream that had brutal consequences. One of only two grocery stores for miles, the store has served the […]
Posted inNews
Judge Denies Dinsmore’s Bid for Release
Humboldt County Superior Court Judge John Feeney has decided he doesn’t have the authority to release Steven Dinsmore from custody pending a resentencing hearing in January, leaving the 48 year old to remain in jail until then. Dinsmore, who was ordered released from custody in 2022 after serving more than 17 years in prison only […]