As lawmakers across the nation work to advance hundreds of bills targeting trans rights and anti-trans rhetoric increasingly fills local online community forums, some used Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 to celebrate trans joy. “We spend so much time thinking about what we’re losing and what we’re worried about,” Tommie Moore conceded after […]
News
Posted inNews (NCJ)
‘A Symbolic Gesture’
On the morning of Dec. 16, the Earth flag was raised to the top of city-owned flagpoles in Arcata, above the United States and California flags, respectively. The unprecedented arrangement came after the Arcata City Council voted unanimously in closed session the night before to uphold a voter-approved initiative dictating the new placement but with […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Lawsuit Alleges Humboldt, California Unfairly Denied Foster Care Benefits
A recently filed lawsuit accuses Humboldt County and the state’s Department of Social Services of unfairly denying Native American youth access to extended foster care benefits, designed as a lifeline for young adults ages 18, 19 and 20 who’ve been raised in government care. The plaintiffs include tribal citizen and former foster youth Madison Fisher, […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
‘He is Safe’
A McKinleyville man kidnapped and held hostage for more than six years in Africa has been freed, President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials announced March 20. “Today, I am gratified to share that American Jeff Woodke was released from captivity in West Africa,” Biden said in a statement. “Jeff was kidnapped while serving people […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
The Foilies 2023
It seems like these days, everyone is finding classified documents in places they shouldn’t be: their homes, their offices, their storage lockers, their garages, their guitar cases, between the cracks of their couches, under some withered celery in the vegetable drawer … OK, we’re exaggerating — but it is getting ridiculous. While the pundits continue […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
An Industry on Edge
The Humboldt County cannabis industry is on edge, with an initiative slated to come before voters next year that would dramatically reshape cultivation regulations, capping the number and limiting the size of farms, and overhauling how the county’s primary cash crop can be grown moving forward. More than four dozen cannabis farmers and industry advocates […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Newsom’s Climate Budget Would Slash Funds that Protect Coast
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget would cut funding for coastal resilience projects almost in half, eliminating more than half a billion dollars of state funds this year that would help protect the coast against rising seas and climate change. The cuts are part of Newsom’s proposed $6 billion in reductions to California’s climate change programs in response […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Saving the Sea Otter
On rare occasions, a sea otter makes an appearance on the North Coast. Locally extinct since around the turn of the 20th century, the last confirmed sighting was in 2015, when one was filmed frolicking in Humboldt Bay. In less fortunate cases, remains of two sea otters were separately discovered washed up on area beaches […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
A ‘Robust’ Conversation
Over the course of nearly three hours on March 4, as a panel of county and city officials discussed mental health services, a number of themes emerged: Humboldt County is brimming with trauma but has limited resources to address it amid a legal framework that gives all but the very sickest among us power over […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Fortuna Police Warn of Skimming Scam, Seek Public’s Help Cracking Case
Fortuna police are warning of a potential skimming scam aimed at accessing credit and debit card information. They are also seeking help identifying a suspect in the case. The case’s roots stretch back to October of 2021, according to Lt. Matt Eberhardt, when the department got a cluster of debit or credit card fraud reports […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Snow Dreams, Travel Nightmares
When much of Humboldt awoke Feb. 23 under a blanket of fluffy, white snow the fun was palpable. Snowfriends popped up in yards from Trinidad to Southern Humboldt, while snowballs flew hither and thither. In McKinleyville, a half dozen or so kids dusted off their sleds and headed to Pierson Park, where they spent the […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
NorCal Superintendents Go to Washington
At the beginning of February, a small group of school officials from Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity counties traveled to Washington, D.C., with the aim of educating members of Congress about the unique challenges facing rural districts and the communities they serve. Leading the charge was Jamie Green, who grew up in Humboldt County and […]