Vote for the Best of Humboldt
Cast your ballot, have you heard? It’s Best of Humboldt – spread the word! So, like, everyone is talking about it. Yeah, Best of Humboldt — only the biggest event of the whole year. It’s not just a popularity contest, you know. The Best of Humboldt award recognizes the people, places and things that totally…
North Coast Night Lights: Night Lights in the Fog
In which an expedition to photograph beneath the night skies encounters lemons in the form of a thick pea soup fog, so we make lemonade. We had hoped for a starry night and the Milky Way, but the lemonade turned out better than expected. In online photo circles, one will bump into other photographers through…
Another Record-Breaker on the Books Today
Good morning, Humboldt. According to the Eureka office of the National Weather Service, coastal communities have already seen another record-breaking day, with temperatures at Woodley Island hitting 71 degrees by 9 a.m. Admittedly, the previous high for June 12 was a low bar at 68 degrees. Well…that didn't take long. One hour later, it's now…
UPDATE: Hot! Hot! Hot! Heat Advisory Until 7 p.m.
SECOND UPDATE: According to the Eureka office of the National Weather Service, coastal communities have another record-breaker in Wednesday, with temperatures at Woodley Island hitting 71 degrees by 9 a.m. Inland temps are even hotter. Read more here. UPDATE: Eureka tied the highest temp for the month of June, hitting the 85 degree mark, but…
Yurok Tribe Awarded UN Honor for Forest Management Practices
The Yurok Tribe recently became the first indigenous community in the United States to be awarded the Equator Prize by the United Nations Development Programme, which honors “innovative nature-based solutions for tackling climate change, environment and poverty challenges.” “We are honored to receive recognition for our traditional ecological knowledge and western science-based approach to managing…
Win One for the Gipper
“Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day! I’ve got a beautiful feeling, everything’s going my way.” My Grandmother used to sing that every morning to wake up my brother and I. And I, not being a morning person, hate hate hated it. Nothing worse than being rousted by someone an hour and…
UPDATE: Suspect Fled, HCSO Reports ‘No Perceived Threat to the Community’
UPDATE: HCSO reports “deputies are clearing the scene” after finding no signs of the man inside the barn where he was believed to be barricaded but states there is “no perceived threat to the community at this time.” “Due to the nature of the investigation, the fact that deputies were unable to obtain a positive…
HumBug: Dining Out in June
The fifth of June invited me to take my favorite stroll along the Van Duzen River. Things are at last heating up in the insect world. While I was checking out some daisies, a shadow flitted past me. It was member of the well-known migratory dragonfly species, the common green darner (Anax junius). This is…
Humboldt School Kids Hit the Beach for a Cause (with Video)
Humboldt County school children descended on the South Spit to remove invasive species and pick up trash in celebration of the statewide Kids Ocean Day that culminated Thursday with a group photo captured from the air. This year’s design featured the 1,000 or so elementary school students creating a pair of Western grebes with a…
EPD Seeks Suspect in Possible Hate Crime
The Eureka Police Department is investigating an assault at Starbucks on Tuesday evening as a possible hate crime. According to EPD spokesperson Brittany Powell, officers were dispatched to Starbucks at about 6:40 p.m. for a report of a fight between a man and two women. When they arrived, they found the suspect had fled the…
Remembering the Lost Crew of Coast Guard 6549
The Coast Guard held a ceremony today in memory of the four crew members of CG-6549 who lost their lives during a rescue mission off of Cape Mendocino in 1997. Lt. Jeffrey F. Crane, 35, of Marshfield, Massachusetts; Lt. j.g. Charles W. Thigpen IV, 26, of Riverside; Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard L. Hughes, 33,…
‘Stop this Madness’
Editor: Opposing the Terra-Gen wind project is not NIMBYism, unless you regard the entire planet as Humboldt’s backyard (NCJ Daily, May 30). The wind generators do not reduce CO2 emissions, they merely produce electricity. In their construction, they not only generate greenhouse gas but also damage our terrestrial carbon sinks, the forests and the soils.…
Terraforming Mars
Last week, we looked at the difference between “terraforming-lite,” warming Mars to the point where it has a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and liquid water oceans, and “full terraforming,” where it has an atmosphere with sufficient oxygen (and minimal CO2) that humans and animals can breathe. Because we can do a whole lot on Mars…
‘Send Comments’
Editor: In the May 23 Journal, Freddy Brewster discusses some current plans for Humboldt County development (“Draft Housing Element Calls for Drastic Solutions to Humboldt’s Housing ‘Crisis'”). I wanted to add one to the list, the proposed wind turbine “farm” by Terra-Gen (NCJ Daily, May 30). This project would erect 60 wind turbines along the…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I don’t think we were ever meant to hear the same song sung exactly the same way more than once in a lifetime,” says poet Linh Dinh. That’s an extreme statement that I can’t agree with. But I understand what he’s driving at. Repeating yourself can be debilitating, even deadening. That…
The Aging Entomologist
Dedicated to my friend Tony Humbugs Westkamper and his lovely wife Hadassah The aging entomologist won his fair lady not with blandishments of youth – dancing, archery, bumpers of beer, dark-side adventures , or concerted rock, but strolling in fog-shrouded woods, under firs, slow musing in dripping shadows near the slipping down of purling waters, wooed…
‘A Comedy of Errors’
When the city of Eureka took the bold step in February of putting out a request for proposals for a lucrative marketing contract — one that for decades had been given to a single organization — the request itself outlined a bold vision. Referencing the council’s 2018 strategic visioning session, the request noted that the…
The Cost of Wind
Give me the restless power of the wind,” wrote lyricist John Hall in an anthem about renewable energy popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary. The phrase evokes sails billowing in the wind, or maybe a cooling breeze on a hot summer’s day. But in reality, wind energy on a scale large enough to power an…
Ascending
Well, I made it home. And after 1,700 miles on a circuitous route from here to Escondido and back, I can now say with some authority that anyone who lives south of Willits is completely out of their mind. I did manage to enjoy myself a bit, however. Sleeping in the band room of the…
A World of Peas
Spring has always meant peas throughout my life, both in Italy and in California. What has changed over time is my attitude, going from “oh, no!” to “yeah!” The peas I knew in Italy were shelling peas — also known as English peas, garden peas and a few other names — small green globes that…
Trinidad Art Nights
FORBES AND ASSOCIATES 343 Main St. “North Coast Landscapes,” Martin Swett, metallic prints. HEADIES PIZZA AND POUR 359 Main St. Susan Mayclin Stephenson, oil on canvas, prints and notecards. MOONSTONE CROSSING 529 Trinity St. Jeff Stanley, acrylic paintings NED SIMMONS GALLERY 380 Janis Court (Trinidad Coastal Land Trust) “A Watercolorist’s Journal from 2018 – 2019,”…
The Women Behind the Trees
On Nov. 10, 1924, the Pacific Lumber Co. began secretly logging its timberland near the mouth of the South Fork Eel River. The plan was to cut a right-of-way through the forest that would allow the company to reach Bull Creek Flat, about a mile away, and then level thousands of acres of old growth…
Liking the Cage
When I was 23 I arrived at the same correctional facility that my father was sent to a week before his high school graduation in 1972. This would be a recurring theme in my life, repeating the timeline of my father’s experiences. Rehabs, jails, overdoses, best friends dying young, drug psychosis, dysfunctional family split-ups and…
Better than Maybe
Reviews ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE. It can be challenging for me to find an entry point with romantic comedies. Not that I dislike them (though to be honest I would most of the time select something else) but by and large the genre leans on the acceptance of a certain level of earnestness, a borderline…
Ready, Set, Grow!
By and large, growers are a proud bunch. If you’ve spent much time hanging out with Humboldt County cultivators, you’ve almost assuredly been treated to ribbing — most of it good natured, some of it not — about who grows the best weed and whose thumb is, well, the dankiest. Well, by the time you…
Must be PTSD
Editor: Been feeling out of sorts? Not quite sure where these feelings are coming from? I’m thinking that our whole county is suffering from a case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by the wanton and uncalled for destruction of our cherished community radio station, KHSU-FM (Mailbox, May 23). Makes sense to me. Whattaya think? Christopher…
‘Incredibly Offensive’
Editor: I’d like to thank last week’s writer for bringing up Blue Lake Casino’s offensive sign advertising a band with an unfortunate name, which I won’t repeat (Mailbox, May 30). I am lucky enough to have escaped sexual abuse in my life and I still find this sign incredibly offensive. My stomach turns every time I see…
