Cover Story
Ballot Measure Soup
When Humboldt County voters fill out their ballots, after they check a box for their preferred candidates for president, senator, member of Congress and state Assembly, as well as those for local school board and city council seats, they’ll wade through 10 statewide propositions. Then, finally, they’ll get to local measures, and there are a…
Clara May Demello Wandler: 1938-2024
Born Aug. 28, 1938, in Scotia, California, Clara May Voigt was the fifth child of 10 born to her parents Warren G. and Clara M. Voigt of Shively, California. She was the fourth girl of seven in the family in addition to three brothers. Life in Shively in the ’40s and early ’50s was rather…
Sun’s Out at Taco Town Fruteria
Some days, even the most chunkily be-scarfed among us is hit with a wave of seasonal affective downer, the need for a little sunshine. Sure, there’s light therapy, but it can’t hurt to try tacos. Taco Town Fruteria (320 F St., Eureka) opened in July, in the former home of Chuchi’s and before that Masaki’s…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Oct. 23
Having lived many years ago in British Columbia, on a teenage solo mission to see things and wander into the wilderness, I have a soft spot for anyone who lived similarly and reflected upon it musically. Such is the duo Ocie Elliott, who, hailing from Victoria on the big island, are a duo who play…
Your Familiar Polling Place May Have Closed but You Have Many Voting Options
Blue Lake voters planning to cast a ballot in the November election may need revise their voting plans. “For the first time in the almost 50 years that we’ve been voting in Blue Lake, there will be no place to vote in-person in our city,” Lin and David Glen wrote in an email to the…
NCJ Preview: Barred Owl Controversy and Local Flavors of Taste of Mainstreet
In last week’s episode of The NCJ Preview, California Local News Fellow Kelby McIntosh covers Digital Editor Kimberly Wears’ story on a controversial barred owl culling plan. Arts and Features Editor Jennifer Fumiko-Cahill also takes us on a tour of Eureka’s Taste of Mainstreet, exploring the local flavors and community vibe. Read all this and…
Music Tonight: Sunday, 20
Tonight is a very good night for those of you out there who appreciate improvisation music done right by two champions of the punk to cosmic soul train and a next-gen, more modern acolyte of the form. I am speaking about Mike Watt, founding bassist of pioneering punk act the Minutemen, guitarist Joe Baiza of…
The Burger Joint Rebrands as T’s Brunch Club
The Burger Joint (835 J St., Arcata) closed its doors on Oct. 15, rebranding itself as T’s Brunch Club, set to open Nov. 1. This complete overhaul includes a fresh interior redesign to create a brunch atmosphere that the owners are passionate about. “We really love making brunch and I feel like the demand is…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Oct. 19
Lots of business is going down this Saturday night, so I thought I’d mix things up a bit and recommend a show outside of my normal route and field of interest. Bloody Kisses is a burlesque performance presented by Duchess Burlesque and inspired by the words of that creepy, born again and dead now vampire…
Salmon Spotted in Klamath Basin for First Time in More Than a Century
On Wednesday, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist spotted a first-in-a-century sight on a tributary to the Klamath River in the Klamath Basin: A fall-run Chinook salmon. Just weeks after the last remnants of the four hydroelectric dams that used to clog the lower Klamath River were hauled away, concluding what was the…
Music Tonight: Friday, Oct. 18
I am hot and cold about the NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. Some I really enjoy, where the artist(s) appreciate the medium and don’t overindulge to squash the intimacy of the form. Others just seem like annoying showboating. But my brother loves them, and I defer to his judgment, particular when it comes to soul and…
NCJ Preview: Humboldt’s Ballot Breakdown, CPH Presidential Search and Celebrating Indigenous Foodways
In this episode of The NCJ Preview, News Editor Thad Greenson discusses Humboldt’s 13 local revenue ballot measures and updates on the California State University search for Cal Poly Humboldt’s next president. Arts and Features Editor Jennifer Fumiko-Cahill covers Chef Calvosa Olson’s food sovereignty and her workshop at Cal Poly Humboldt, which explores Native foodways.…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Oct. 17
Well, the E-40 show at the Van Duzer Theatre looks to be sold out, but that’s of little matter, as there is an absolute scorcher happening down at the Miniplex at 6 p.m. Set the controls to the violent center of creation, as psychedelic drone rangers Carlton Melton are back in town, and bringing the…
Yes on F
Editor: Common sense tells us that the city can’t remove 218-plus off-street parking spaces while adding 282-plus new apartments — and their vehicles — without unintended consequences. A yes vote on Measure F requires off-street parking at current levels, possibly building above these five parking lots, a common practice elsewhere in California. Hundreds of new…
No on F
Editor: Measure F is confusing on purpose. It will build no new housing, but will stop the construction of hundreds of affordable apartments that are already approved and funded. The proposed tenants could earn up to $65,000 a year for a family of four. They would live, work and shop in Old Town and downtown,…
Vote Harris
Editor: Stop the flow of U.S. weapons to the Israel and its genocide of the Palestinian people. Vote for Kamala. As President, she would be free to pursue her own policies and reject Biden’s policies. Will she cut off the arms flow as Reagan did in 1985? Indications are that she will support the Palestinians.…
Vote Atkins-Salazar
Editor: I would like to express my support for Stacy Atkins-Salazar in her bid for re-election to the Arcata City Council. I have known Stacy as a friend and a neighbor for over 20 years. Stacy has always been a problem solver, whether the issue was making our street corner safer with pedestrian blinkers or…
Yes on O
Editor: As Shelter Cove residents, we know firsthand the challenges of living with deteriorating roads. Our rough roads make travel difficult and delay emergency responders. Measure O is crucial for addressing this imbalance. By ensuring that all parts of Humboldt County contribute fairly, we can make sure rural areas like Shelter Cove receive the funding…
Vote Benzonelli, Hansen
Editor: Please vote to re-elect Heidi Benzonelli and Michael Hansen as board members for the Humboldt Community Services District this November. Both incumbents bring the education and experience required to understand and manage the community’s complex water and sewer systems. Heidi has HSU degrees in engineering and business with focuses on water and sustainability and…
‘This Important Tool’
Editor: About a month and a half ago, our county’s Office of Elections mailed the Official Humboldt County Voter Information Guide. I’m so glad that we Eurekans have this important tool that we can use to make an informed decision about how to vote on Measure F. It provides us with a one-page, in-depth “Impartial…
No More Election Letters!
The deadline to submit a letter advocating votes for or against specific candidates and measures in the Nov. 5 election passed Oct. 11.
Someday Soon
One last breath Recalling life, Embracing it all As if nothing Matters, Where suddenly Everything changes, Galaxies collide And Black Holes Emerge, Creating something Better than anyone Could ever imagine Recalling the past Forever… — Kirk Gothier
Noni the Bear, Fondly Known as ‘Twinkle Toes,’ Dies
Noni the black bear, whose penchant for balancing on the thinnest branches at the top of the redwoods in the enclosure earned the nickname “twinkle toes” from her caretakers, has died. She was 2 years old. The Sequoia Park Zoo announced her passing in an Oct. 10 social media post, one day after the bear…
‘Uniquely Unique’
It was about 40 minutes in the forum held at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Van Duzer Theatre to allow a California State University presidential search committee and a group of locals comprised to advise them to hear input from the campus community on who should become the university’s next president. Both committees had already heard from…
Idioteque
In a 2006 essay in The Nation by the late, great Alexander Cockburn called “The Triumph of Crackpot Realism,” Cockburn gazes at the normalized, violent insanity wrought by Washington D.C. on the Middle East and quotes the work of the American sociologist C. Wright Mills: “In crackpot realism, a high-flying moral rhetoric is joined with…
Sara Calvosa Olson’s Indigenous Abundance
Amid the gleam of stainless steel in the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab, a pair of women sort huckleberries and place them on a tray. Sara Calvosa Olson (Karuk) flicks her eyes over to them and says they’re doing all the hard work, while tomorrow she’ll turn the berries into smoothie bowls for a faculty…
How to Be Scared
If the sun is still up and shining incongruously over the 8-foot-tall skeletons atop the entrance to the Humboldt County Fairgrounds — done up for its seasonal shift as the Scaregrounds for Griffin Loch’s Scream-A-Torium — fear not. Well, not yet, anyway. Treat the entrance like the lobby of the movie theater before you settle…
The Making of Monsters
SATURDAY NIGHT. Although I have drifted through long, possibly significant eras of the show without giving it so much as a look, Saturday Night Live has been an influence and a cultural barometer, even before I got brave or dumb enough to sneak out of my room to watch it. Now in its fifth decade,…
Unfit in Every Way
We implore you to vote for Kamala Harris for president, and to clearly and strongly encourage everyone in your orbit to do the same. We do this because the only viable alternative is a man who has repeatedly proven himself to be unfit to hold the nation’s highest office. It has been more than a…
