Cover Stories
Best of Cannabis
Best Local Cannabis Product: Space Gem The Humboldt cannabis consumer is nothing if not discerning. And so the folks at Space Gem should feel no small pride at their win. The company cranks out an array of solventless, THC-infused edibles flavored with fruit, including drops for drinks, tinctures and Mind Expanding Belts of gummy canna-candy.…
Best of Bonus!
Best Place to Meet Singles: Humboldt County Courthouse Best Place to Break Up with Someone: Murder Mountain I’m not judging, Humboldt, but I am concerned. Wait, sorry, I am judging. The Humboldt County Courthouse winning out against our bars and cafes as your favorite setting for your meet-cute isn’t a huge surprise, since the jail…
Best of Humboldt 2022
It’s been a bit of a circus and not always in the good Britney Spears comeback album way. No matter what you do, making it work these days requires being a bit of a ringmaster. The winners of this year’s Best of Humboldt have honed their skills wrangling cats, juggling, highwire balancing and jumping through…
Best of Arts & Entertainment
Best Craft Artist: Cate Be Serious question: Can a mug make you feel seen? The rounded heft of one handmade Cate Be mug features a woman weeping Saturn-like rings into the starry background and reads, “Cries a lot and gets shit done.” One states, “Access to my energy is a privilege,” while another shows a…
Best of Food & Best of Drink
Best Bloody Mary: The Alibi In the world of cocktails, the Bloody Mary is a classic. And the classic place in Humboldt County to enjoy the salty, savory drink packing a spicy punch and a reputation for restorative powers is none other than the consummate downtown Arcata locale, the Alibi. But first things first, which…
Best of Retail & Services
Best Auto Body Shop: Quality Body Works Quality Body Works has won NCJ’s Best Auto Body Shop for the past six years and the BOH voters know exactly why. With more than 40 years of service in Humboldt County, Quality Body Works offers quality collision and autobody repairs. It’s the local factory-certified repair facility for…
Best of Weddings
Best Hotel for Your Wedding Night: Benbow Inn Whether it’s the charming guest rooms with their antique wood furniture and Tiffany lamps, or the bar terrace with its vistas of the Eel River and endless redwoods, the Historic Benbow Inn offers plenty of “wows” after you’ve said your vows. The classic Tudor exterior of the…
Six Rivers Fire at Nearly 11k Acres: New Evacuation Warning Issued, Fire Personnel More than Doubled
The Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire threatening communities along the Trinity River is now just under 11,000 acres and remains at 0 percent containment, according to today’s update. The complex, which initially comprised 12 fires sparked by lightning before dawn on Aug. 5, is now down to five active fires due to the “aggressive initial…
California Monkeypox Response is Bumpy, but Builds on Some Lessons from COVID
Hundreds waiting hours for a monkeypox vaccine only to be turned away. Residents taking to social media to detail struggles getting diagnosed and treated. State and local leaders demanding federal action. Emergency orders declared. At face value, these details paint the picture of a country and state in crisis, struggling to apply lessons learned from…
Humboldt Crabs Wrap 2022 Season
There was a bittersweet feeling on the field as Eureka local Garrison Finck threw the last strike of the 2022 Humboldt Crabs season. The season was over with a 13-game winning streak to wrap up a highly successful campaign. Players took to the field to shake hands and celebrate a Crabs win one more time…
Photos: 39th Annual Lantern Floating Festival
A large crowd returned for the in-person 39th annual Arcata Lantern Floating Ceremony on Saturday evening at Klopp Lake in the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary after a two-year pandemic break. The emotional event, linked to the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, was described by organizers as “an opportunity to offer…
UPDATED: Arson Suspected in Mattole Valley Logging Equipment Fire
CalFire has launched an arson investigation after an excavator caught fire on California State Park property near Honeydew yesterday afternoon. A witness allegedly saw two people near the John Deere excavator shortly before flames took off in the grease and oil of the machine’s undercarriage, allegedly the result of a road flare pitched underneath it.…
Officials Warn of ‘Long Battle’ As Reinforcements Arrive to Fight Six Rivers Lightning Complex
About 100 residents from the Willow Creek area crammed into a small church on State Route 96 on Monday, where billows of smoke could be seen from a large, pane glass window spiraling into the sky across the Trinity River from the Bremer Fire as it continued to encroach on Willow Creek’s eastern edge. They…
More Evacuation Orders Issued as Six Rivers Fires Continue to Grow
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has issued new evacuation orders as the Six Rivers Lightning Complex continues to grow, threatening multiple communities around Willow Creek. This morning, the Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order for the HUM-E077-B zone south of Willow Creek, which comes after the office issued an evacuation order for zone HUM-E063-A yesterday…
Karuk Tribe: McKinney Fire Slide Caused ‘Kill Zone’ in Klamath River, Suffocating Thousands of Fish
The Karuk Tribe continues to investigate the cause and breadth of a fish kill event in the Klamath River but believes a massive debris slide from the McKinney Fire turned a section of the Klamath to sludge, killing thousands of fish. Craig Tucker, a spokesperson for the tribe, said its believed the debris slide entered the…
‘Extreme Fire Behavior’ Seen as Six Rivers Lightning Complex Grows
U.S. Forest Service officials saw an “increase in extreme fire behavior” yesterday on the eight active fires that comprise the Six Rivers Lightning Complex, prompting additional evacuations on the outskirts of Willow Creek. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation orders for residents in zones HUM-EO56 and HUM-EO57 — which include the Bigfoot subdivision under…
Trinity County Issues Evacuation Orders as Six Rivers Lightning Complex Grows
Officials have issued more evacuation orders on the outskirts of Willow Creek as the Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire continues to grow. The group of 11 different fires caused by lightning strikes before dawn on Aug. 5 continues burn in steep, dry terrain, spreading with little containment. The U.S. Forest Service is managing the fire…
NCJ Preview: Local Favorites, Yurok Tribe Report and Garden Helpers
The Best of Humboldt issue is out and we’ve some favorites (and head-scratchers) among the winners. We’re also going over the Yurok Tribe’s recent report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, from looking at the data to its suggestions for a multi-pronged response to the heartbreaking crisis. Then we turn to the backyard and ways…
UPDATE: More Evacuation Orders Issued Near Willow Creek
UPDATED: An evacuation order has now been issued for zones HUM-EO77-C, HUM-E058 and HUM-061, south and east of Willow Creek. Evacuation warnings have been issued for zones HUM-EO63, HUM-EO64 and HUM-EO77-B, south of Willow Creek. These areas are urged to prepare for potential evacuation orders. “Be ready to go at a moment’s notice,” the Humboldt…
Karuk Tribe: McKinney Fire Causing Klamath Fish Kill
The Karuk Tribe is reporting large numbers of dead fish on the Klamath River in the vicinity of Happy Camp, which it’s attributing to impacts from the McKinney Fire, which has spread to nearly 60,000 acres in Siskiyou County. According to the tribe, “very large” number of dead fish of all species are being observed. “Preliminary…
First Case of Monkeypox Confirmed in HumCo
Humboldt County Public Health has confirmed the first case of monkeypox in the county after a resident contracted the viral infection. According to a press release, the resident is doing well, self-isolating at home and appears to have had no close contacts locally. Monkeypox, a rare zoonotic infection caused by the monkeypox virus, which is in…
Lightning Sparks Numerous Fires Around Willow Creek
An overnight lightning storm sparked numerous fires near Willow Creek and a variety of agencies are responding this morning, trying get a handle on the blazes before they spread. The U.S. Forest Service reported that lightning strikes started eight new fires in Six Rivers National Forest early this morning. Information is scant about the blazes,…
Turning into Your Umma
UMMA. Intergenerational Asian American women’s trauma is having a big year at the movies. It felt like my daughter and I had barely wiped our eyes and shaken off the cringing giggles of Turning Red (2022), when we found ourselves visually and emotionally sandblasted by Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Both centered around Chinese…
Climate Inaction Threatens Grandchildren’s Future
Recent evidence reveals that California has surrendered to the climate crisis, so prospects for our grandchildren’s future look grim. For example, this year the Assembly and state Senate passed no effective climate legislation. Lawmakers ignored climate’s effect on wildfires, floods, drought and soaring temperatures. Worldwide temperatures are now 1.2 degrees Celsius above historic levels, headed…
Corporations Aren’t People but They Can Be Psychopaths
Manipulative, deceitful, aggressive, remorseless, lacking empathy and affect — all are classic definitions of psychopathic social behavior, according to psychiatric evaluations. These are traits also emblematic of today’s legal fictions called corporations — entities that have taken control of our democracy and our lives, entities that exist only for the purpose of increased revenue and…
No Thanks to Biomass
Editor: In your article on organic waste (“All Hands on Deck,” July 21), you said that S.B. 1383 requires cities to procure certain amounts of compost, mulch, bioenergy and biofuel. The regulation doesn’t require jurisdictions to take some of each. It’s a smorgasbord, not a meal where Mom dishes it out and you have to…
Grateful for Composting Options
Editor: Thank you, Iridian Casarez, for your article on what I would call commercial composting (“All Hands on Deck,” July 21). I have had backyard composting since the late 1970s. However, as I get older, I may not be able to maintain that system that makes my yard healthy. Hopefully, there will be systems available for us…
In Praise of Mailbox
Editor: I’m impressed that Jennifer Fumiko Cahill hasn’t responded to all the letters her original piece (“It Might Be Time to Get Totally Motherfucking Unhinged,” June 2) has generated. She said what she has said — it’s good to know that she is confident in her opinion. Though I might disagree with an aspect of…
Grateful for Input
Editor: Nordic Aquafarms has been working on the Samoa Project for over three years and looking forward to being before the Humboldt County Planning Commission this week (“Quantifying Impact,” July 14). Being transparent and readily available to the community has always been at the core of NAF’s work on the Samoa project. NAF has held…
PlanCo Takes Up Aquafarms’ EIR
The Humboldt County Planning Commission met July 28 to consider certifying Nordic Aquafarms’ Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) but, after three-and-a-half hours of presentations and public comment, continued the meeting to Aug. 4. The hybrid meeting was plagued by technical difficulties, resulting at times in some commissioners being unable to speak, and requiring the postponement…
Walking My Dog in the Rain
she grins at me so proud I swing the wet hot pink plastic bag away from her snout my baby blue umbrella gives no cover we don’t notice we are drowning safety orange jacket with pockets full of treats my cell phone demands attention but I can’t find my brain the box I keep it…
The Yurok Tribe Offers ‘Blueprint’ to End the MMIP Crisis
By the time the news came in mid-October of 2021, Blythe George was already immersed in the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. A Yurok tribal member with a PHD from Harvard serving as an assistant professor of sociology at University of California at Merced, George had already spent more than two years working…
Party Safe
Last week I made a sly appeal to the Fates, suggesting we could all use a little break from the chaos of the front page and the never-ending news cycle of battery and degradation. It’s tricky putting out overtures like that because the sincerity of desire and the hope of fulfillment is usually tempered with…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Fiction-writer John Banville tells us, “There are moments when the past has a force so strong it seems one might be annihilated by it.” I suspect that’s sometimes true for many of us. But it won’t apply to you Aries anytime soon. In fact, just the opposite situation will be in…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive
Eureka Main Street presents First Saturday Night Arts Alive on Aug. 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. Our galleries, museums, theaters, bars and restaurants are open. Some businesses continue to require everyone to wear masks and follow other COVID safety precautions to keep patrons and staff safe. Please respect the standards set by individual businesses,…
Pests in the Garden
Given the title of this article, you might think I’m going to talk about tomato hornworms, spittle bugs or aphids. OK, I will mention aphids but I want to talk to some of the less talked about pests. Let’s start with my worst pest for the past couple years: deer. Bambi. Rats with antlers, as…
Changes Coming to Sport Rockfish Regulations in 2023
In response to recent scientific information suggesting some nearshore groundfish species are in decline, significant changes to California’s groundfish sport fishing regulations are expected starting next year, according to a press release issued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The upcoming changes were developed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) to reduce…
