A Wing and A Prayer

April 16, 2026 / Vol. XXXVII / No. 16

Cover Story

A Wing and A Prayer

There is still “a sliver of hope” this year will be the one for the first condor chick in more than a century to hatch on the North Coast.  The breeding pair A0 and A1 have recently been seen together away from their nesting site during a time when a hatchling would still need constant…

El Sueño

We’ve all been in a funny spot lately, and we all know why, so I won’t drag the pen across that point any further. One thing about living through such disastrous and deeply stupid times is that we are all aware of the horrors enough that a wave of the hand says more than words…

Decolonize Your Palate

Knowing your ingredients goes further than familiarity, says Crystal Wahpepah. The Three Sisters Cake she’s teaching Cal Poly Humboldt students to bake in the stainless-steel kitchen of the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab today makes a solid example. The Three Sisters, as the North American Indigenous staples corn, beans and squash are called, are all…

‘The Drama’s’ Uncomfortable Romance

THE DRAMA. The immersive paranoid magical realism of Dream Scenario (2023) made it tempting to presume to know what to expect from writer/director/editor Kristoffer Borgli: another fantasia set against the vagaries of the modern world, defined by wild departures from that reality and underpinned by bleak, comic hysteria. To indulge that temptation would have been…

AI forthe Planet

The inescapable truth is that generative AI is the future, laid out before us like a swirling, slightly-off carpet of AstroTurf in a dream where it kind of turns into water. In fact, after checking Chat GPT, the survival of which depends on its ubiquity, it assured us everyone is already using it.  Late adopters…

Caution: Construction Ahead

With spring arriving and fruit trees starting to open their buds, it is time to think about pollinators. Among the first to visit my orchard are the mason bees (genus Osmia), often considered the best general pollinators, delivering much more pollen from flower to flower than honey bees. Mason bees are extremely efficient pollinators because…

Answers to Questions

Editor: Per the April 2 NCJ issue … 1) To Sherman Schapiro (Mailbox, “A Question”): No, President Trump does not know how to say, “Thank you.” He knows how to hear you say it. 2) To Dennis Whitcomb (Mailbox, “Gravity of the Moment”): I think Sen. Schiff is doing what he can, but it would…

Voting for Mary Burke

Editor:  The thought of Mary Burke as our next Fifth District supervisor is so reassuring to me.  As a 26-year McKinleyville resident and neighbor of Mary’s for much of that time, I’m aware of her long experience and familiarity with Humboldt, her good nature, her ability to listen and understand, and the competence and dedication…

‘Mark Your Calendars’

Editor: Re: “Just Asking” (Mailbox, April 2), in which Dick Bruce wonders if there are any candidates for governor other than that one billionaire, I have an answer: YES!  Dr. Butch Ware is the Green Party candidate for governor. He is for real affordable housing (not handouts to developers), universal healthcare (what do insurance companies…

Beginning

Beginning is the color of a red poppy It tastes like a fresh papaya coated with a ripe lime It lives in an ending, patiently waiting its turn A beginning is a wave, rolling, like an uncontrollable wagon, flying across the colored sand It’s a palm tree, dancing in the wind like a ballerina Even…


Recent

Gift this article