Bankers’ Lunch: Second Course
In which our economy-watchers discuss the Humboldt County workforce, the regulatory burden and – again – the undead railroad
Cover Story
Bankers’ Lunch: Second Course
With the national economy in the tank and the local election season just around the corner, we thought it time to reconvene our panel of high-finance pundits to discuss the state of affairs here on the ground. Patrick Cleary, 49, spent 17 years as an investment banker on Wall Street — 10 with Chase Manhattan…
Don’t Cry For Hurwitz
The Houston Chronicle’s Loren Steffy dries the tears in his eyes long enough to again sing the tragic tale of one of Houston’s finest, Charles Hurwitz. The occasion is Hurwitz’s recent losses — or are they really wins? — in a couple of court cases, including our own Pacific Lumber bankruptcy case and the reversal…
Condor big time
Used to be, California condors sailed the western skies from Baja to Canada. Now just 148 hunker down in captivity and another 136 exist tenuously in the wild — 63 of them in California, mostly in Southern California although some live up around Hollister at Pinnacles National Monument. But someday we may see the…
Crab TV?
Is Humboldt County not thinking out of the box enough in terms of economic development? or out of the crab pot in this case? The International Herald Tribune has an article about a reality TV show about crab fishermen that’s taking viewers by storm, literally: Dutch Harbor, a fishing port in this town on a…
PALCO Bankruptcy
The California Report shines its light northward and takes a closer look at the PALCO bankruptcy proceedings. Listen to today’s show here: audio player AudioPlayer.embed(“2008-04-08-tcr”, {soundFile: “http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/tcr/2008/04/2008-04-08-tcr.mp3”});
Rising Silver Sea Lifts S.S. Lovelace
Trifecta. Photo by Elizabeth Mackay. You knew he had the up-and-coming trail-centric activist types nailed down. But did you know that he’s also pocketed the establishment? That’s Third District Supervisorial candidate Mark Lovelace, flanked by the once and future Wes Chesbro and outgoing Supervisor John Woolley. In other words: The two leading representatives of the…
The Piss Fir Air Force
According to an Associated Press story published yesterday, we here in Humboldt County will soon get to experience the joy of living under remote-controlled aerial electronic surveillance. Who says war brings no peacetime benefits? BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has bought a pair of flying drones to track down marijuana growers operating…
T-S Puts Positive Spin on Police Raid
The Times-Standard is running a piece today on a yesterday’s drug raid by the Humboldt Drug Task Force and the Eureka Police Department in the 300 block of West Del Norte Street. That’s City Councilman Larry Glass’ neck of the woods. And the article mentions a recent community meeting Glass organized which included the Eureka…
Hair and Other Stylings
Unlike any shows before and few since, the musical Hair was produced in several U.S. cities at the same time it was still on Broadway. I saw it in San Francisco in 1969. I had a friend in the cast, who’d been the lead in the play I wrote and directed at college a year…
Rip it Off
CD by Times New Viking. Matador. The lo-fi rebellion has come and gone, but its echoes ring in underground rock to this day, liberating bands from the creativity-limiting atmosphere of studio recording and allowing them to hone their expression at home. Years of being a necessity for underground rock bands have made low fidelity a…
Slings and Arrows
DVD, Acorn Media. Slings and Arrows was an award-winning Canadian TV series that ran for three seasons there and on pay cable in the U.S., ending last year. The DVDs are showing up now in area video stores, with all 18 episodes available as a set. Set in a Stratford (or even Oregon Shakespeare Festival)…
Real Emotional Trash
By Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Matador. Stephen Malkmus, the former frontman and singer/songwriter for Pavement, revels in playing the role of the trickster. His lyrics are often puzzles, roaming the geographical (and metaphorical) map from Bristow, Calif., to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, while sprinkling in references ranging from the photographer Richard Avedon to film noir.…
Growing Tomatoes in the North Woods
Every spring I gather the plants like a…
Meet the Pro
I blog with a group of opinionated gardeners at gardenrant.com; one of my partners in crime on that site makes her living as a garden coach. At first I wasn’t sure why the world needed one more kind of horticultural professional. We already have designers, landscape architects, arborists, engineers, lawn care services and landscape crews…
Payday
The vote is in! Result? It’s Mendocino Redwood Company, by a mile! The only major voting bloc in the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy case that doesn’t have its own horse in the running is the group of "unsecured creditors," the mostly small-fry type folks who did business with the company, or successfully sued it. (The Journal¬†is…
Same Old Spacey
Opening FUNNY GAMES.Remake of 1997 thriller follows young men as they take a family hostage in a vacation home invasion. Rated R. 108 m. At the Minor. LEATHERHEADS.A ragtag team in early-1920s professional football league is saved by golden boy war hero. Rated PG-13. 114 m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek. NIM’S ISLAND.Author’s…
Race Matters
In the last five years, the Times-Standard has gone from a laughable paper to a darn good one. Now when I pick it up I find some solid reporting and intelligent writing. I wanted to say that before I launch into my longest standing pet peeve with the paper. It has to do with how…
Gone to the Dogs
Coney Island was a seaside resort as early as the 1820s. Close enough to Manhattan to afford easy access by ferry, it was distant enough to be an escape from city routines. Walt Whitman wrote of "the long bare unfrequented shore I had all to myself … and where I loved after bathing to race…
Ancient Mariners
Sailing is an ancient enterprise. Humans used the wind to cross the oceans thousands of years ago. Sails, however, existed 350 million years before humans hoisted theirs. The jellyfish Velella, several centimeters long, sails warm oceans to feed upon pelagic organisms which it captures with stinging tentacles a few centimeters long. Fortunately, their nematocysts (see…
Cell Theory
Between 5:15 p.m. and 7:02 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2007, Martin Cotton’s final hours were recorded unpoetically in the Humboldt County Correctional Facilities observation log: 1715 hours Admitted — Extremely combative 1738 hours Moving — OK 1752 hours Talking / Moving OK 1755 hours Moving 1807 hours Breathing / Moved…
Thompson Tops Liquor List
According to numbers released last month by the Center for Responsive Politics, Rep. Mike Thompson is the top Congressional recipient of campaign donations from beer, wine and liquor interests in the 2007-2008 election cycle. Thompson’s $144,266 in contributions was mainly received from a number of $200-$9,200 donations from individual wineries in his district, with PACs…
Following the Stream
When you hear Leo Kottke play guitar, you know the instrument is something like his soul mate — playing guitar is what he’s meant to do. As he explained in a recent interview on Minnesota Public Radio, he did not find the guitar initially. When he was a boy, he’d actually taken up trombone and…
