Cover Story
Winners of the 2025 NCJ Pet Photo Contest
If aliens come to Earth to decide whether they’re going to vaporize the planet, our best move as a species is to show them our pet photos. For here, preserved in the snapshots of snouts and tails, is the best of us. Our pets are both the vessels into which we pour our unconditional love…
Ella Myrtle Melendrez
Our Mom will be greatly missed by all who knew her. She was a vibrant, fascinating woman who loved her family, her friends and her church. She was born in northern Saskatchewan to Frank and Myrtle Kroeker on their family farm. She learned how to make butter, milk cows and walk miles to school in…
Erika Makino
Erika Beatrice Makino, aged 96, passed away peacefully at her home in Redwood Valley, California on Feb. 7, 2025. The cause was respiratory failure. She was an adventurous person, fascinated by other cultures, languages and perspectives. A quiet woman with a strong spirit, she always followed her own path. Erika was born on July 24,…
Daren Salter
Daren Michael Salter, a beloved husband, father, brother, son and teacher, passed away on Feb. 5, 2025, in Seattle, Washington, after a courageous battle with neuroendocrine cancer. Born on Aug. 18, 1976, in French Camp, California, Daren was a man who lived his life with a vibrant passion for education, music, and sports. A graduate…
Jerry Comfort
We really never thought this day would come, and our hearts will never be the same. Jerry Comfort, one of the greatest men we’ve ever known, lived an incredible life to 96 years of age. We will miss him every day, but we are so proud to call him Dad and Grandpa. Jerry grew up…
David Dale Karr: 1957-2025
David Dale Karr, beloved Dad, PaPa, Brother, Uncle, Cousin and friend to many, peacefully left on his final journey from his long-time McKinleyville home on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025. The youngest of four children born to Robert and Mary Karr, he entered life on Nov. 12, 1957, at Trinity Hospital in Arcata and was a…
NCJ Editor Greenson Shares 40th Award Win
The Humboldt Journalism Project recently named two first place winners for this year’s 40th Award, including North Coast Journal News Editor Thadeus Greenson for his series of articles on the controversy surrounding Eureka City Schools’ now-defunct deal with a mystery developer for the purchase of the former Jacobs Middle School and a Eureka ballot measure…
Court Tosses Gaza Lawsuit Against Huffman
A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit filed in December against North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman alleging he broke the law when he voted in favor of providing military aid to Israel. About a month after the case was filed, Vince Chhabria, a judge in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, ordered…
Fair Board Faces Critical Racing Decision Tomorrow
The Humboldt County Fair Association Board of Directors will meet tomorrow facing a decision its members say may shape the very future of the iconic annual event. At issue is whether the association should pursue holding a horse racing meet — a staple of the yearly event going back generations — even as the industry…
AMOC and the Inevitable Climate Threat
Like other acronyms that slowly seeped into our consciousness — think COVID — I predict that you’ll soon be familiar with AMOC, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. We and our children may — with a great deal of luck and statesmanship — dodge such potential global catastrophes as another pandemic (thanks to the magic of…
‘Credit Where Credit is Due’
Editor: In Mark Larson’s article “High Water and ‘Old Boys’ at the Trinidad to Clam Beach Run” (Feb. 13), he states that Vince Engel set the Humboldt State University record in the “880 meters.” He didn’t. My husband Pete Haggard (who, by the way, co-writes a column with Jane Monroe for the NCJ) set the…
‘Incompatible’
Editor: I enjoyed reading the recent “Field Notes” by Barry Evans on Jared Diamonds’ Guns, Germs and Steel (Feb. 6). Reminded me of reading it 25 years ago. The deep history of humans expanding around our planet over tens of thousands of years, reaching the climate calming period of the Holocene and agriculture, developing cities and…
‘Like Drunk Drivers’
Editor: Anti-vaxers are like drunk drivers, maybe worse (Mailbox, Jan. 16). Both anti-vaxers and drunk drivers think that what they want to do is more important than other people’s lives. Many drunk drivers acknowledge that drunk driving is wrong. But they delude themselves: “But I’m not drunk” or “I can handle it.” Anti-vaxers don’t even admit they’re doing wrong. Some get…
‘Separate But Equal’
Editor: In asking how 300 people could be wrong in their support of another elite retirement community in McKinleyville, I’m reminded of the 77 million that just voted to put billionaires in charge of national policy (the advertisement for Life Plan Humboldt, Feb. 13). Any institution, small business or “nonprofit” accessing public resources and subsidies…
American Robins
They came with the wind When they left, she stopped swaying Berries plucked and gone — J. Commander
Judge Takes St. Joseph Abortion Case Under Submission
After hearing about 30 minutes of oral arguments on Feb. 14 over whether he should dismiss or delay a landmark lawsuit from the California Attorney General’s Office alleging St. Joseph Hospital violated state law when it refused to provide a medically necessary abortion, Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning took the matter under submission,…
Pet Sounds
I’ll keep this brief, because we are celebrating our non-human friends this week, and not my doggerel. Here’s a little edited Walt Whitman: “I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained… Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things… Not one is…
Advice for Avoiding the Avian Influenza Apocalypse
OK, alliteration aside, I am back to discuss the very topical issue of the growing concern involving avian influenza A (H5N1). The current administration will likely create an environment of missing and misinformation, much like the last time this executive held government reins. So, who ya gonna call? Well, your local veterinarian and support staff…
A Tale of Two Tails
Note: Names have been changed to protect the privacy of embarrassed furballs. On a chilly Sunday morning we noticed a young couple pacing up and down as they scanned for something. “Our cat is missing,” they said. The distraught couple were camping at Clam Beach and their kitty, whom I will call Pretty Boy, went…
Blue-winged Warblers, 2025 and Personal Bests
There’s something uncanny about birding in 2025. The Humboldt birders have hit the ground running this year. Everyone in my feathered circle is out there with single-minded dedication, chasing rarities, putting in long hours day after day, birding like there’s no tomorrow because — well, let’s not go there. I’ll admit I’m not a huge…
Nickel Boys‘ Powerful Perspective
NICKEL BOYS. There is a school of thought among filmmakers (Friedkin springs to mind, probably some of the French New Wavers), which holds that the camera must have a distinct point of view, that it cannot simply be an omniscient third-party observer. This flies in the face of some deeply held values among cineastes (read:…
