An American Genocide
Humboldt County’s role in the mass extermination of California Indians wasn’t limited to a massacre, vigilantes or even a militia. It was systemic.
Cover Story
An American Genocide
On the morning of April 7, 1862, Capt. David B. Akey and a detachment of soldiers from the Second California Cavalry left their camp in the Kneeland-Iaqua area. They were looking for Indians. The ground was covered with four inches of snow, which made tracking easy. Akey described what happened next. “Found fresh trail of…
Reuben Rubric
The famed Carnegie Deli in New York City has announced it will close its doors at the end of 2016, never again to stun tourists and enable regulars with its mountainous signature sandwiches, dizzying stratified cliff faces of corned beef and pastrami. Take a moment to pour out some pickle juice on the ground. How…
UPDATE: Temporary Homeless Sleeping Area Abruptly Halted (with Video)
As on many other mornings, the deadline for campers to leave the temporary sleeping area came and went with people packing their belongings onto shopping carts in the mud as the Eureka Police Department stood by and waited. The official deadline was 9:30 a.m., but at 11:30 the last of the 30-plus people staying in…
HumBug: Fly Fishing
A very long time ago I got into fly fishing. It is a highly technical method for fooling an animal with a brain smaller than a pea into thinking that bits of feathers and fluff are something good to eat. Those somethings are usually members of three orders of insects: mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies. The first books…
Sheriff’s Office Investigating Death Near Homeless Camp
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has launched a death investigation after finding a body down a cliff from a homeless camp near Garberville. Deputies were called to the scene shortly after 7 a.m. on Sunday, and found the body across from the entrance to Camp Raven Cliff between Redwood Drive and the Eel River. According…
Little Monsters
Halloween isn’t over yet — aggressive candy-handlers will be fanning out across our county tonight to fill their plastic pumpkins, come whatever weather. For many, it’s round two, after chasing that high-fructose high from shop to shop along Main Streets and plazas on Saturday. Eureka’s Old Town was packed with ghouls and game characters galore,…
Fun-Size
It’s here! The most magical time of the year for little ghouls and goblins. With free trick-or-treating, costume contests, parades and old-fashioned carnival fun, there’s plenty to do this Halloween. We’ve got the scoop on the (not so) scary spots for your little monsters. McKinleyville’s Halloween Costume Parade is Saturday, Oct. 29 at 11 a.m.…
Board Votes to Dissolve Humboldt Pride
After months of internal turmoil, Humboldt Pride’s board of directors has voted to dissolve the organization, putting the future of Humboldt County’s Pride Week in question. The move was announced earlier this week on the organization’s Facebook page in a short note to the community, which included thanks to donors and volunteers and concluded optimistically,…
DA Clears Arcata Officer in Shooting
The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office has determined that an Arcata police officer acted in self-defense when he opened fire and wounded 26-year-old Joshua Hoffman at a gas station in May. After reviewing witness statements and multiple videos capturing the shooting, District Attorney Maggie Fleming determined that Hoffman was charging officer Don Arminio with a…
Clash Over Care: Protesters Face Off Over Skilled Nursing Closures
Two large and loud groups of protesters filled the sidewalk in front of Partnership Healthcare Plan’s regional office on Eureka’s Fifth Street this afternoon. Both sides want the same thing: for the three skilled nursing homes slated to close and displace vulnerable North Coast seniors to stay open. The point of contention was why, exactly,…
Supreme Court Denies Eureka’s Request in Police Video Case
The California Supreme Court has decided not to reconsider a recent appellate ruling establishing a statewide precedent that police arrest videos cannot be considered confidential officer personnel records and shielded from public view. The court’s decision may put an end to a more than two-year battle between the city of Eureka and the North Coast Journal…
Update: No Injuries in Hoopa Officer-Involved Shooting
UPDATE: No one was injured during an officer-involved shooting in Hoopa after a sheriff’s deputy shot at a suspect who reportedly fired at law enforcement several times from his residence during an early morning stand off yesterday. Eric Michael Matilton, 31, is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, willful discharge of a firearm in…
King-Size
If you’re skipping the family-friendly portion of Halloween this year and are looking instead for grown-up thrills and chills, here’s a sampling of events sure to scare the wits out of you. The granddaddy of local scream-throughs, the Haunted Kinetic Lab of Horrors is back Oct. 28 through 31, from 7 p.m. to midnight at…
Vote Allison!
Editor: With the current situation at local nursing homes in Eureka becoming a polarization of issues all over this country (“The Case of the Missing $5 Million,” Oct. 13), we need to focus our funds on what’s important: the People. Too much money is being spent on selling one’s self, a reward for a vandalized…
Vote Fullerton!
Editor: Recently the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce, the Humboldt Builders Exchange and the Eureka Times-Standard all endorsed me in the race for Eureka City Council. Hundreds of individuals from liberals to conservatives, including recent members of the Humboldt Democratic Central Committee and the Republican Central Committee, have also endorsed me. Why? Because good intentions…
Measure F!
Editor: I am writing this to endorse Measure F and encourage Arcata residents to join me in voting yes on this ballot measure. I sit on the Utility Users Tax Oversight Committee, and I can tell you that without this source of income, we would experience a significant decline in the effectiveness of our police…
Measure V!
Editor: I noted with interest Ryan Sundberg’s comments opposing Measure V because he thinks it wouldn’t be fair to the new owners of a mobile home park if they couldn’t impose unlimited rent increases. Sundberg chose to represent the 42 park owners instead of 1,500 families in Humboldt. It is especially interesting that his example is…
Measure P!
Editor: Politicians claiming Eureka’s citywide elections provided, “a more responsive city council” are delusional. Ignored for decades, residents suffered sewage contaminated homes, businesses, greenbelts and Humboldt Bay during crab season, resulting in fines from the California Water Board. Citizens’ demands to repurpose blighted properties are disregarded, leaving our neighborhoods with increasing arson and vandalism that…
No on 51, 55!
Just about every time I open my voters information pamphlet the schools are asking for more money. This time it’s propositions 51 and 55. Fifty-one is for construction and modernization of schools. I seem to recall we passed one for that purpose not too long ago. What do they want it for, chandeliers in the restrooms? As…
No on Q! (Yes on R)
Efficiency and effectiveness of operations are not enhanced by merging multifaceted departments into one and then adding a figurehead to oversee those operations. Employees of the Auditor-Controller and Treasurer-Tax Collector departments provide critical checks and balances between the two departments to prevent fraud. If these departments are merged, then that fraud prevention firewall will be…
Amendment Needed
It’s old news that this presidential race is about preventing whichever front-runner from getting elected. However, voters lack direct power to do so: impeachment isn’t preemptive and court trials are slow. Scandal will probably derail Trump and Clinton will mildly prevail. But what’s next? Our system no longer serves us. Votes are only “positive” (for…
Sign of Something
There is something weird about this election: the almost total absence of campaign signs and bumper stickers, at least in Arcata, where I live. On my ballot are important races for the presidency, U.S. Senate, Congress, state assembly and city council. There are 17 state propositions that affect important issues such as school funding, the death…
Bye Bye, Bird Count
Retired Humboldt State University professor John Hewston heard the birding call early in life. Raised in rural corners of Washington state, a young Hewston was more likely to be looking for birds under bushes than tending a fishing line like his fellow elementary school students. He did the same walking home from school, writing down…
Halloween, Samhain and Jack o’ Lantern
The Christian celebration of Halloween (holy evening), like its predecessor, the pagan Celtic festival of Samhain, is that liminal time of year when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead become thin. For our ancestors, that’s when ghosts and spirits needed to be propitiated with offerings of crops, milk and wine.…
Banana Slug Derby – Dukkha Style
A big storm is coming, finally As I veer off the Grizzly Bluff Onto my favorite jogging path, Dodging Sword Ferns, Dancing around Spruce Guarding Zipporah’s Pond. A Banana Slug Derby Runs blissfully amok, Blessed by first rains Drenching forest floors, Teasing the senses Of all who roam Aimlessly fulfilled.
Living Authentically
Reviews AMERICAN HONEY. In this case it’s difficult to separate my staid and cynical self from the open, curious one. The former looks at this movie as a bigger, louder take on the same themes as Kids (1995): a decades-older artist’s peek through the keyhole of disenfranchised youth culture, designed to freak out the squares.…
Long Halloweekend
Although Halloween falls on a Monday this year — much to the children’s dismay — it seems everyone will go ahead and consider Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday Halloween or at least a pre-party. I expect the children will still be honoring this high-fructose holiday on Monday but adults who like costumes have many shows…
The Neverland You Never Knew
Did you know Neverland was a sailing ship before it was Peter Pan’s forever home? Me neither. But that’s just one of the fascinating details to emerge in Peter and the Starcatcher, Humboldt State University Theatre Department’s season opener. It’s a play with music (not a full-blown musical) that imagines a prequel to the Peter…
Rock Out
Fish cakes are one of my all-time favorite appetizers. You can make them with just about any fish but I prefer locally caught black rockfish (which are sometimes also sold as “black snapper”). This recipe is simple, incredibly tasty and always a big hit at parties. Just make sure you eat one of them right…
For the Love of Figs
I can’t stop eating them. There’s a fig tree at the place where I am staying and I can’t seem to keep them out of my mouth! It’s a huge tree, maybe 50 years old, sprawling across the low wood fence and dropping down into the neighbors’ yard. They don’t mind. Every October, both houses get more figs than…
Ghost Town
Most of the sky has darkened but for an apricot streak of sunset over the mouth of Humboldt Bay. Alex Service stands with her back to the water at the foot of F Street, her brown, oilcloth duster flared out behind her as she sets the scene for a crowd of 30. She asks them…
Where’s the Fire?
Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Bill Gillespie gave a presentation on butane hash lab explosions on Oct. 18, urging the Eureka City Council to pass an ordinance that would cap sales and possession of the volatile fuel within city limits. (The council will vote on the ordinance next month.) Gillespie said local city and county lawmakers…
Props and a Number
Editor: I wish to give props to John Hardin for his entertaining and thorough cover story regarding the Garberville Veterans Hall (“Closed,” Oct. 20). I learned a lot I did not know about the history of our major local meeting place. One story he did not include was what we of the senior fitness exercise…
King-Size
If you’re skipping the family-friendly portion of Halloween this year and are looking instead for grown-up thrills and chills, here’s a sampling of events sure to scare the wits out of you. The granddaddy of local scream-throughs, the Haunted Kinetic Lab of Horrors is back Oct. 28 through 31, from 7 p.m. to midnight at…
