35 Days in the Forum
Unified Students’ sit-in shines a light on Native issues at HSU
Cover Story
35 Days in the Forum
The room is quiet. It’s 9 a.m. on a day in late January and students are spread out across the stadium seating of the Native American Forum at Humboldt State University. The smell of burnt coffee wafts through the air as they listen to an instructor discuss last week’s reading. It’s almost like any other…
Homey, No!
A grisly scene on Arcata’s West End Road, where everyone’s favorite yellow four-fingered buffoon bobs in the moss and weeds of a nearby ditch. Was it a cartoon mafia hit? A lover’s tryst gone wrong? Or simply a teenager’s dramatic goodbye to childhood? We may never know, but one thing is for sure: Homey deserves…
DA Probing Borges Death
The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office has initiated a review of the June 13, 2014 in-custody death of Daren Borges, who died hours after being booked into the county jail by Eureka police officers. Borges’ sister, Stephany Borges, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit last week, alleging officers acted negligently in booking him into jail…
Downtowner Movin’ on up
Eureka received a $3.8 million grant from the state to develop Danco’s Lodge at Eureka on the site of the derelict Downtowner Motel. Residents have long grumbled about the property, and last year became a contentious political point when 4th District Supervisor Virginia Bass, who was running for re-election, appointed Downtowner owner Kevin McKenny to…
Jury Convicts Wilde of Murder, Five Other Charges
After deliberating for about five hours, a federal jury today convicted Mikal Xylon Wilde of six charges, including the murder of one of the men working his Kneeland marijuana farm in 2010. Wilde faces life in federal prison when sentenced in the case on June 3. Wilde’s trial began last month with prosecutors alleging that…
HumBug: Zombie Dung Flies
A couple of days ago while working in my front yard, I noticed insects flying around down near ankle height. Taking it as an excuse to stop working I paused and watched. Soon enough one landed. I was able to identify it as a ‘golden dung fly’ (Scathophaga stercoraria), a species with which I am familiar.…
Tres Noches
On the cusp of the Cuban slave rebellion, a mixed-race woman in 19th century Cuba woos a white man by using her religion — Santería, a blend of Yoruba mythology, Catholicism and in-digenous tradition. During a 40-day Uruguayan Carnival in Montevideo, an illiterate 11-year-old newsboy of African descent learns to read from the newspaper office’s…
Wrongful Death Suit Filed Against Eureka; EPD Complaint Review Raises Questions
The mother of a 42-year-old man who died in the Humboldt County jail hours after being arrested by Eureka police officers last year has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit seeking unspecified damages. Brought on behalf of Stephany Borges, Daren Borges’s mother, the suit filed Thursday alleges officers violated Borges’ rights when they forcefully arrested…
Leonard Nimoy, Bigfoot Hunter
“It’s hard to imagine corner of our crowded world where a giant man-like creature could roam free, yet there’s persuasive evidence that Bigfoot is real.” If you’re feeling nostalgic about Leonard Nimoy, take a look back at his In Search of… episode featuring local legend Bigfoot. Most of it centers on Sasquatch investigators and sightings…
That Time The Foo Fighters Played Arcata
We almost missed making note of an anniversary near and dear to longtime A-towners’ hearts. Thankfully, British weekly music mag NME reminded us about the significance of Feb. 23, 1995: Back To The Foo-ture: 20 Years On, The Story Of Foo Fighters’ First Ever Show. The story starts off slagging on Arcata as a place “where…
Laws are Made to be Broken
Editor: In response to Hodgson’s article on Robert Lustig’s diet advice (“Obesity — How’d THAT Happen?” Jan. 22), Barry Evans defended the validity of the First “Law” of Thermodynamics (“Field Notes,” Jan. 29). We do not live in a theoretically perfect world, however, and using an incomplete description of this theorem without including losses to…
Brewing Discontent
Editor: Thank you for your informative article, “Big Beer.” As the union’s business agent, I am pleased to inform North Coast Journal readers that the United Association (UA) of Plumbers and Steamfitters, did perform some work on the new brewery. One member worked on the cooling system and a few other members from other UA…
The Stoned Housewives of Humboldt County
The Hoopa Valley Tribe will vote this year on whether to allow medical pot growing on tribal lands. Native American tribes around the nation are deciding how to react to the federal government’s announcement last year that it will let tribes decide on their own marijuana laws, a hands-off approach similar to the U.S. Department…
Settled out of Court
Last month, the National Center for Youth Law announced that it and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California had reached a settlement in the federal civil rights lawsuit they brought against Eureka City Schools on behalf of four local minority students who they said suffered pervasive and systemic discrimination in the district’s schools.…
Style Counsel
L et’s mix it up a bit. Pick something you wouldn’t usually gravitate toward and give it a go. Remember, you can always leave discreetly, especially if you sit in the back and duck out during a break. At least you’ll have attempted to expand your horizons. Friday: High-falutin’, funk or a holler? When’s the…
Hum Plate Round-up
Big Dipper It’s not your fault you skip over something like bean dip on a menu. For one thing, bowls of the pasty business show up a lot (there’s likely still an iffy container of the stuff in your fridge from the Super Bowl), and for another, if it’s your one evening out with babysitting,…
Wild Child
hair-mess little girl, tree-climbing chaos tomboy girl lowers her head. spirit in metamorphosis she reads aloud a poem about trees, birds and mountains in mist. long hair, hereto wild, smoothes itself into a folksong, almost quiet. But not quite, — Lauri Rose
The Curious Case of Pluto
On July 14, NASA’s “New Horizons” spacecraft will zip past distant Pluto, 7,000 miles above its icy surface, while traveling at 25,000 mph. New Horizons will complete a saga that started 85 years ago this month in Flagstaff, Arizona. On Feb. 18, 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, a 23-year-old Kansas farm-boy-turned-astronomer, found Pluto by comparing telescopic photos…
Time Trials
Reviews HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2. The first installment was winningly clever and absurd, so it was disappointing to learn that John Cusack would not reprise his role, and that the movie’s release date was pushed back from Christmas Day to February. The latter is never a good sign, usually indicating a lack of confidence…
Redline the Carpet
I couldn’t watch the Oscars. That’s probably a good thing. I had papers to grade. Still it irks me. My husband and I cut off our Suddenlink cable at the end of last year because we paid way too much for what we got. We now have a Roku device that lets us watch movies…
Beer is Good
Editor: Grant Scott-Goforth’s article in the latest Journal (“Big Beer,” Feb. 19) regarding the money spent by the city on infrastructure improvements to facilitate Lost Coast Brewing’s new brewery is somewhat misleading. While I’m sure the quoted figures for the improvements were correct it doesn’t reflect the whole story. Sunset Road was almost un-drivable due…
Brewing Discontent
Editor: Nice job on your informative article on the Lost Coast Brewery expansion. In my opinion, the best thing about Lost Coast Brewery is Duane Flatmo’s original artwork! The Lost Coast Brewery is another fine example about how the community loves and supports small startup companies and then, when they become successful, the owners forget…
Hello, Cowboy
Mel Brooks never met a genre he didn’t want to mess with. But those old Westerns (spaghetti or otherwise) that played on TV Saturday afternoons were already pretty nuts. From Italians in red-face to hookers with hearts of gold, it’s a wonder it took Brooks until 1974 to make his glorious sendup Blazing Saddles. See…
Fancy Dancer
According to the Facebook user quoted on his website, Sherman Alexie “looked more Indian when his hair was long.” No matter. Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, has Native American writer cred to more than cover it. The prolific (24 books!) poet and fiction writer has a PEN/Faulkner fiction award, a PEN/Malamud short fiction award, a…
