As the Board of Supervisors readied to hold a Feb. 1 public hearing to consider providing millions of dollars in tax relief to local cannabis cultivators pushed to the brink of insolvency by a plummeting wholesale market, the Humboldt County Growers Alliance broke the news on its Instagram page. Just minutes before the meeting was […]
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Regulatory Relief?
The long-feared mass extinction event for Humboldt County’s cannabis farms might finally be upon us. Ross Gordon, the policy director for the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, says while the county had 905 licensed farms on Oct. 27, only 721 remained as of Feb. 28 — a reduction of 20 percent in just four months. The […]
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‘Icons of Preparedness’
Troy Nicoloni was still at the Woodley Island office of the National Weather Service before dawn on March 11, 2011, after what had been a long night for the then warning coordination meteorologist who was monitoring updates after a massive rupture of the subduction zone off the coast of Japan. Later upgraded to a magnitude-9.1 […]
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End of School Mask Mandate Looms, Leaving Districts to Decide
Toddlers and preschoolers who have mostly known a school life with tiny masks may be in for a big lifestyle change after Friday, when the state mask mandate for kids ends at midnight. While wearing masks is still strongly recommended, some medical experts worry removing the state mask mandate could be risky, especially for tots. […]
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Weighing the Fish Scales of Economic Development
The proverb goes something like: “If you give a woman a fish, she can eat for a day. If you teach a woman to fish, she can eat for a lifetime.” But with fewer fish and many more mouths to feed in today’s world, we are left to consider a newer version: “Give Humboldt an […]
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Aquafarm Ecology: Energy and Water in, Water and GHG Out, Fish on the Go
The underlying environmental implication of “paper or plastic?” is enormous enough. Building and operating a large-scale, land-based fish farm has a complexity of ecology that has so far taken Nordic Aquafarms 1,800 pages to begin to address. Citizens scrutinizing Nordic’s Draft Environmental Impact Report on the implications of the fish factory produced their own volumes […]
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‘Opportunities for Fraud’
Apparently spurred by an errant letter from the state, Humboldt County Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez shared with the Board of Supervisors on March 1 the “findings” of her ongoing review of the county’s finances, which included a laundry list of irregularities and deficient fiscal controls, as well as a few straight allegations of impropriety. Paz […]
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‘Shattered’
If 19-year-old Mauricio Johnson feels remorse for having gunned down a newly engaged couple and a 16-year-old girl in their home on the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria Reservation last year and then working to flee the county as they lay bleeding, he didn’t express it during a pre-sentencing interview with his probation […]
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Pet Photo Contest 2022
Morris the cat, Petey from Our Gang, Walter Geoffrey the wailing Frenchie, and now … Boomer from Bayside? You betcha. Joining the ranks of these well-known pet celebs, our furry, feathered, scaly and slimy friends are the stars of our households deserving of diva treatment and their names in lights (or at the very least […]
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‘Night and Day’
If you are an able-bodied person in Humboldt County, it is not difficult to get to the beach. But if you use a wheelchair or walker, or are blind, it is a lot harder. Hard enough to effectively keep most disabled people away from the beach, said Alissa Norman, community advocate for Tri-County Independent Living, […]
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Unmasked
As the immediate past president of the Humboldt-Del Norte Medical Society, a family medicine doctor and chair of medicine at Redwood Memorial Hospital, Stephanie Dittmer understands the science of COVID-19 better than most. And she understands that the science says that wearing masks helps to prevent spread of the disease that has now killed more […]
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Introducing, Doctor Betty Kwan Chinn
Local philanthropist Betty Kwan Chinn was never allowed to attend school as a child and was once even beaten for having the audacity to peek into a classroom window, but she’ll soon hold a doctorate degree. Cal Poly Humboldt recently informed Chinn she will be receiving an honorary doctorate of human letters at this year’s […]