News

To keep Gov. Gavin Newsom or not to keep Gov. Newsom? That is the question. Upset by the progressive governor’s policies, his handling of the pandemic and his infamous maskless dinner at the French Laundry, about 12 percent of the number of Californians who voted in the last election for governor signed petitions to force […]

Get ready to finally have a chance to redeem your California Refund Value deposits, Humboldt. Hambro Recycling of Crescent City is opening a CRV buyback center in Arcata in the next few months. “We’ve been looking at [opening a CRV buyback center] for a while. You know, there wasn’t really any movement in Humboldt. We’ve […]

By any mark or measure, it was a grim week in Humboldt County, and not just due to the smoky, orange haze that overtook the sky as four wildfires raged with minimal containment to its east. In the seven-day period before the Journal went to press Aug. 10, the county saw 539 new cases of […]

For more than a year, Jonathan Weltsch dismissed COVID-19 as the flu. When vaccines became available, the 43-year-old local businessman spent months decrying them as more dangerous than the virus itself and urging loved ones not to get them. In short, he thought the pandemic was “kind of a hoax,” according to his wife, Sarah. […]

Imagine six or seven thirsty people sitting in a hot room around a small table, at the center of which sits only one medium-sized glass of water. Who gets to drink? If everybody takes a single swallow and passes it on, there could be enough to temporarily quench everyone’s thirst. Unfortunately, this is not likely […]

California has lost one of its fiercest and kindest advocates. Charles L. Bean Jr., who took a life-changing accident that left him quadriplegic as a young man and turned it into a relentless mission to make the world a more equitable, accessible place for all, using his soft, firm voice and kind smile to improve […]

Amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced July 26 that health care workers and state employees must be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing and wear masks. Employees of hospitals, nursing homes, dentists’ and doctors’ offices and other health care settings will have to comply with the requirements by Aug. […]

Mirroring a statewide trend, Humboldt County’s COVID-19 case counts are lurching upward, fueled almost entirely by the new Delta variant’s circulation in unvaccinated populations a month after the state lifted almost all of the restrictions aimed at curbing the virus’ spread. Statewide, California recorded a daily average of six new confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 […]

More than most, Loleta resident Yohana Castillo, 36, has experienced unexpected and tremendous loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past eight months, she has lost four people. First her cousin, Esteban Gonzalez, of Esteban’s Mexican restaurant in Arcata, died of complications from the disease. Then another cousin, followed by a distant family member […]

A couple of months back, as vaccine eligibility was rapidly expanding, and the conversation in Humboldt County quickly began to shift from availability to hesitancy, we asked readers to share their stories. We wanted to hear people’s motivations and fears, how it felt to get the shot and what came after, what felt different and […]