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Four officers, an armed suspect and 12 terrifying minutes in downtown Eureka’s rush hour
Cover Story
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It was about 4:40 p.m. on Dec. 6 and Steve Fowlkes was out driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck that he’d just rebuilt the transmission on. The 56-year-old father of two and grandfather of two had planned on just taking the truck home with him for the night to give it a test drive, but…
Betty Chinn Nominated for Californian of the Year By New York Times
Fans of Eureka’s tireless advocate for the homeless, Betty Chinn, will have their opportunity to cast their vote on her behalf today. Chinn, who has dedicated the past two decades to feeding and helping the homeless in Eureka, is one of the New York Times’ 10 nominees for the Californian of the Year. The nomination…
Communication Failure Leaves School in Lurch Following Shooting
A shooting in Southern Humboldt last week has left a school district and the sheriff’s office both looking for better lines of communication. The shooting occurred in Redway shortly before 2 p.m. on Dec. 13, and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office was called to the scene to a report of a gunshot victim lying along…
Work It
If you drive through downtown Eureka during morning rush hour, you’ve likely seen his moves. As drivers steady their steering wheels heading past E Street on U.S. Highway 101/Fifth Street and crane their necks to the left, Adam Brazil is breaking. It. Down. Brazil dips and swerves behind a sign for the Black Lightning Motorcycle…
McGuire Looks to Make ‘Transparency Great Again’
As members of the Electoral College set about casting their votes today, two state senators — including the North Coast’s Mike McGuire — announced they would introduce legislation requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the California ballot. The legislation, slated to be introduced in January, is the second to be…
HumBug: Rainy Day Critters
As the song says, “It’s raining again/ Oh no, it’s raining again.” So what does an entomological photographer do when it’s been raining for days and days? He gets wet. Today, taking stuff out to the compost, I noted the rosemary is blooming. At first I couldn’t see anything moving, then bit by little bit…
Teen Pedestrian Killed in Alleged DUI Crash
A teenage pedestrian was killed last night in McKinleyville when an allegedly drunk driver hit her shortly after 8 p.m. According to the California Highway Patrol, the girl was was northbound on the east shoulder of Central Avenue, north of Anna Sparks Way, when James Arthur Merrick, of McKinleyville, allowed his 2000 Dodge Ram 1500…
Holiday Dance
We are merrily making our way through December — up to our elbows in festivities, crafts fairs, concerts and parades. Humboldt’s bountiful arts scene provides oodles of entertainment this time of year and plenty more nuts to crack. One of the larger productions of the holiday dance classic is Sundance Ballet Company’s The Nutcracker Ballet,…
Critical Response
Less than two hours after last week’s officer-involved shooting in downtown Eureka, an elite group of investigators from local law enforcement agencies assembled for a briefing on the incident. That’s where a number of key decisions were made about the ensuing Critical Incident Response Team investigation, from assigning EPD senior detective John Gordon and District…
Drop it Like a Pot
Last weekend my dad and I got out for his birthday. We launched our old inflatable boat, powered by a small outboard motor, and took off out of the bay armed with box traps and hoop nets. Our goal was to bring in some of California’s tastiest crustaceans — Dungeness crabs. Every year since I…
Humboldt on Tap
Next time you’re wandering Eureka’s waterfront, take a moment to look west and remember: All that lies between you and South Korea is a boat ride. “A very short boat ride,” Sunghoo Yang assures me. Yang, slender and understated, manages to look urbane even in jeans and a hoodie bearing his brewery’s name: The Booth…
Holiday After Day
Time’s flying. The New Year is approaching. The War on Christmas has officially begun. The kids are almost out of school for the winter — I mean, Christmas break. So parents, you need to pack in as much amusement and entertainment as you can [more below] before the kids are at home all day maxing…
Rough Nights
OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY. In the early going, I had reason to be optimistic, albeit cautiously, that this might join the ranks of the Christmas movie canon. It seemed to be subtly stealing all the right elements from some true classics: Chicago setting and bonuses at risk from Christmas Vacation, office setting gone wrong from Die…
Escalation
Forty-four. The number itself is so staggering that we decided to use it as the headline for this week’s cover story about Eureka’s Dec. 6 officer-involved shooting. In our collective memories here at the Journal, never can we recall a local incident when officers fired so many bullets, much less in a situation where they…
Epic Battles
Man vs. Fruit Fly Confined to my house for some weeks by illness, I missed my usual walks along the Van Duzen River. Fortunately for me, there is seldom a shortage of insects wherever I go. While I was more or less bedridden, an inordinate number of tiny flying bugs invaded my home. Although I had no…
Ruff Trip
If, like me, your knowledge of pets plus pot ended in high school with your dumb cousins blowing second-hand smoke into their dog’s ears, prepare to recalibrate. Animals, ranging from the fluffy to the scaly to the cloven-hooved, represent the newest market for medical cannabis. In October the New York Times featured a photo slideshow…
Trump Change
Editor: The Democrats got shellacked in the 2016 election (“Let’s Get to Work,” Nov. 17). The presidency, both houses of Congress, governorships, state houses, dog catcher, you name it. According to the Associated Press, Clinton won 487 counties nationwide, compared with 2,626 for President-elect Donald Trump. Some Californians want to leave the union over the…
The Kids are All Right
Editor: I am an educator at the same school as Rod and have been teaching for as many years as he has (“Teens These Days,” Dec. 1). I appreciated Rod’s article because it made important and relevant insights to what it means to be a teen and I especially like the toddler/cookie analogy. Expecting teens…
‘Distance and Cover’
Editor: Tommy McClain would still be alive today if the EPD had not decided to harass him on the morning of Sept. 17, 2014 (NCJ Daily, Nov. 24). Tommy had no police record and nobody had called to complain about him. He was standing peacefully on his porch before [then-] Sgt. Stephens drew his gun…
Significant Impacts
Editor: I thought the article about the lack of student housing in Arcata lacked depth of understanding of local economics, wages and basic return on capital (“Homeless State University,” Dec. 8). The large student population in Arcata has a mixed impact on the city and its long term residents. The positives about living in a…
Earth Music
Birds serenade the mornings. Frog operas each night. The symphonies of wind and tree, meadow and sea, require no tickets, no press reviews; even an audience is irrelevant. Music just happens spontaneously like breathing or laughing. Each individual from shark to dandelion plays its vital part in the arcane cosmic dance. When each hour has…
The Little Bat
walking and talking into the wind and a cell phone alone, on this night in Santa Fe there, in the corner of buildings butted up against each other, is the bat, the small little bat, a creature seeking heat against the cold – alone folded about himself I am seeking the same from you sonar…
Holiday Song
Hark! The herald angels sing and following suit are many talented troubadours right here on earth. Don’t miss these local songsters making a joyful noise this Christmas. A cappella supergroup A Company of Voices presents its holiday repertoire during Winter Song on Friday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at Morris Graves Museum of Art ($10).…
