Cover Story
The Foilies 2025
The public’s right to access government information is constantly under siege across the United States, from both sides of the political aisle. In Maryland, where Democrats hold majorities, the attorney general and state Legislature are pushing a bill to allow agencies to reject public records requests that they consider “harassing.” At the same time, President…
Farewell to Fernbridge Café
On March 15, Fernbridge Café & Coffee Barn owner Kimberlynn Wright posted the announcement she’d be closing the restaurant soon. As the sole owner since buying the spot three years ago, and a server at the café’s previous incarnation for seven years, she says she wanted to give her staff and regulars some lead time.…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, March 19
Two oddball and frankly fantastic underground cult bands from yesteryear are converging at the Miniplex tonight, and I don’t suggest missing this shebang. Oneida is from New York City, and Kinski are from Seattle, but both hit the bricks hard around the same time, having been birthed from the late ’90s ecstatic noise and pop…
Diaz In, King Out as Fortuna Council Looks to Appoint New Member Amid Allegation of ‘Unethical’ Actions
It appears the Fortuna City Council’s process to appoint a new member this month was a zero sum game, resulting in the seating of Councilmember Juan Carlos Diaz and the ensuing abrupt resignation of Councilmember Jerry King a day later. Elected in November, King listed Diaz as his second choice to fill the vacancy at…
Music Tonight: Monday, March 17
Regular readers know how little regard I have for this plastic Paddy holiday, having run the gauntlet bartending and been mistaken as Irish on this silly, American drinking pageant. No shade on the Irish, by the way, and up the ‘RA and get your Brits out, as Kneecap, a favorite Irish rap group of mine,…
Helen Stockwell Vatcher
Helen Elizabeth Stockwell Vatcher passed away peacefully on Feb. 28, 2025, at Frye’s Care Home in Cutten, California. She was 95. Helen Stockwell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but her family soon moved to California. She attended Los Angeles High School and Scripps College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art. While working summers…
Music Tonight: Sunday, March 16
Scott Cook and Pamela Mae play folk music, as an acoustic duo with the fella on guitar and vox, and the lady on upright bass and harmonies. Simple, unpretentious stuff, as you will discover for yourself at Synapsis at 7 p.m. The suggested donations for this road running duo run from $15-$25 but you won’t…
Arthur K “Art” Barab
Art Barab passed away on March 6, 2025, in Sudbury, Massachusetts, after a lengthy bout with dementia. He was born in Syracuse, New York, on June 1, 1942, to Max and Dorothy Barab, and attended Cornell University before moving to California, where he spent his entire adult life, save for a stint in the United…
Temperance Hall St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up. Craving a stew-pendous meal with a side of live music? Join the fun at An Evening of Irish Music, happening Saturday, March 15, from 5 to 9 p.m. at Bayside Temperance Hall ($45 dinner and music, $25 music only). A hearty Irish stew dinner (5:30 to 6:30 p.m.) sets…
Music Tonight: Saturday, March 15
After a long layoff and a movie still in the works, I’m happy to announce that the California Poppies are back at it again. And with spring on the horizon, I can’t imagine a better time for these lads to bloom again. You can hear all about it at the Logger Bar at 9 p.m.,…
St. Patrick’s Day Shindigs
Feeling lucky? Grab your dabbers and join the fun at the St. Patrick’s Day Bingo Party at Freshwater Grange on Friday, March 14, at 6 p.m. ($5 buy-in, $3 additional bingo cards, $15 dinner). Enjoy a hearty, home-cooked feast of bangers and mash, plus dessert and drinks — all while competing for bingo glory. Dinner…
Sunrise at the Refuge Event this Weekend
Start your day with a peaceful sunrise walk along the Shorebird Loop Trail at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge during Sunrise at the Refuge, happening Saturday and Sunday, March 15-16, starting at 6:45 a.m. (free). Catch a gorgeous sunrise while taking in the sights and sounds of southern Humboldt Bay’s diverse wildlife and habitats. Whether…
Music Tonight: Friday, March 14
The Outer Space is putting on an all-ages show with some fine local groups, so I won’t waste any time with preamble. The Uncredible Phin Band — the “h” is silent — is one of my favorite world music acts and have electrified the titular Thai lute for a fantastic sound. As Known As plays…
CPH Presents to Shift Programming
According to a press release sent out yesterday by Chrissy Holliday, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success, Cal Poly Humboldt’s performing arts programming will move toward “more student-centered programming” in the 2025-2026 season. Cal Poly Humboldt Presents, formerly known as CenterArts, is seeing an increasing trend of ticket sales not covering the cost…
Music Tonight: Thursday, March 13
The Basement is once again saving us from the ennui of missing a long, long weekend of music — in my former home of New Orleans, the weekend could stretch a few days on either end because people know how to live down there — by providing a place for some live entertainment. Tonight’s sounds…
‘For Better Bus Service’
Editor: Believe it or not, I also have an opinion on how Measure O funds should be used, but my opinion is somewhat different from Chad Sefcik’s (Mailbox, Feb. 27). One bus tears up our roads much less than 20 trucks, SUVs or heavy cars. One bus provides less traffic congestion. So, my opinion is…
‘Congratulations’
Editor: Congratulations to NCJ news editor Thadeus Greenson on his Humboldt Journalism Project award for investigative journalism. Thadeus isn’t good by Humboldt standards, he’s just plain good. John Dillon, Eureka
‘Never Been So Ashamed’
Editor: After watching the debacle at the White House, I have never been so ashamed of my government in all my 89 years! Two bullies, President Trump and Vice President Vance, attacking a visiting head of state at a press conference. Dictator Putin invaded a sovereign nation not once but twice. Putin should have no…
‘Not About Politics’
Editor: I am disappointed in our education system that has let this person down so badly (Mailbox, Feb. 27). If we cannot trust our scientists and medics who have spent their lives learning, thinking and developing proven therapies for human ailments, then we can trust no one. Yet there are some who may have never…
‘Sleazy Move’
Editor: What a sleazy move, NCJ! When I read my letter, as you printed it, (Mailbox, Feb. 27), I noticed that the editor removed an important piece of information. I recommended the book: The Courage to Face COVID-19: preventing hospitalization and death while battling the bio-pharmaceutical complex by Peter McCullough MD, MPH and John Leake. However,…
Gardening Undercover
Despite the early morning temperatures in the middle 20s, I made a visit to the winter garden during a lull between rainstorms. Because of the cold and the rain, much of the vegetable garden is muddy and even the winter-hardy cole crops look mushy. But this is the perfect time to check on the garden…
Trans Plant
Tips of yellow skunk cabbage appear in the bog, sloughing off dead bracken ferns and decaying maple leaves. Within a few days, a handful of yellow periscopes unwind into bright-yellow half-shells that cradle spikes crosshatched with hundreds of tiny flowers filling the chill air with an astringent, skunky smell. Their scent attracts rove beetles into…
Ten Years of The Foilies
In the year 2015, we witnessed the launch of OpenAI, a debate over the color of a dress going viral and a Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples have the right to get married. It was also the year the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) first published The Foilies, an annual report that hands out tongue-in-cheek…
Judge Orders Patrick Harvey’s Release
Patrick Harvey, reportedly the first Humboldt County defendant sentenced under California’s three strikes law, will soon be a free man after serving 9,954 consecutive days — more than 27 years — incarcerated for a trio of nonviolent felony convictions, a judge ruled March 11. At the request of the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office under…
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Despite what a few of you might think, I believe the organizing principle of the world is supposed to be love, but somewhere along the way we all fucked it up. Read St. Augustine for more on that, or Milton, Plato, or Dante or Mary Oliver. The mid-20th century psychoanalyst and genius Wilhelm Reich was…
El Pueblo, Bigger and Back on Broadway
The El Pueblo Supermarket at 3600 Broadway in Eureka is more than 6,000 square feet, but the pull to head straight for the back wall is strong. There, at left, stand shelves of pan dulce — pink, yellow and dusted with sprinkles — beside a cold case of rainbow-colored geletina mosaico and strawberry tres leches…
Patrons in the Arts
As Leo Tolstoy once said, “All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Every member of the MacTwatt Clan’s 10-year family reunion reveals unique unhappiness as they meet again after years apart in the Logger Legends, Liars and Lookers, the third in the Logger Bar-located series of plays written and directed…
Trouble in Paradise
PARADISE. There are two kinds of people: those who do not see most of the twists and revelations coming in the eight episodes of the Hulu thriller series Paradise, and goddamn liars. A possible subgroup would be those intent on ruining their own unstudied response by focusing on what puzzles writers might come up with,…
‘We Need the Maximum’
Editor: The ever informative Barry Evans described last week the threat from the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC (“AMOC and the Inevitable Climate Threat,” Feb. 20). It is only one of a number of climate tipping points, but it is likely to be highly consequential (or even “devastating”) for the United States…
