Big Beer
Eurekans spent $700,000 to expand Lost Coast Brewery — what will they get in return?
Cover Story
Big Beer
Humboldt County’s most famous beer maker is a gleaming icon of the modern age of the craft industry. Lost Coast Brewery, the little homebrew-turned-café operation in Podunk Eureka, is putting the finishing touches on a state-of-the-art, $27 million mega-brewery, which will allow the company to expand its worldwide distribution. The company’s new facility is built…
Coffee with the Captains
A crowd of about 30 citizens, public officials and police officers squeezed into Vellutini’s Bakery in Henderson Center this morning for the Eureka Police Department’s first “Coffee With the Captains” — an informal sit down with local law enforcement. Suzie Owsley, with the city’s Problem Oriented Policing team (POP), said that this gathering was one of…
UPDATE: Third Person Dies from Weekend Crashes
A second person died from injuries in Saturday’s State Route 36 crash. in Saturday’s State Route 36 crash. The coroner’s office announced 21-year-old Savannah Kiana Kindred, of Capitola, died in the hospital on the morning of Feb. 23. PREVIOUSLY: Two people were killed in separate crashes Friday and Saturday nights. Just before 10 p.m. Friday, motorcyclist Jerry…
HumBug: Mysteries of the Variegated Meadowhawk
Science always starts with a question. A few winters ago, walking along my favorite stretch of the Van Duzen River on a sunny day, I was surprised to see a dragonfly. Dragonflies spend most of their lives in the water as predatory larvae looking nothing like the graceful fliers everyone knows. As adults they commonly…
$10 Million Claim in McClain Shooting
The family of Thomas McClain, who was shot to death by a Eureka police officer last year, announced it will file a $10 million wrongful death claim against the city and officers involved. Southern California attorney Dale K. Galipo, who successfully sued the city and police officers for more than $4 million on behalf of…
Bigfoot Gets Real
First there’s just cheery bird-chirp amid the sunshine. Then deep breathing, and the video camera takes us into the dark forest. Heavy, deliberate footsteps, crunching sticks, more breathing, menacing music, towering redwood silhouettes that interrupt sprays of light, a few ferns glowing bright … and the beast, walking quickly, then loping, splashing through a creek,…
Over the Ridge
Twenty short years ago, a friend and I chanced upon the trail that leads from Dry Lagoon to Stone Lagoon but our exploration was quickly thwarted by an expanse of thick, black mud. That trail continued calling to me, and a few months ago, after our recent long drought, I had a notion the trail…
Not Blue about the Blue Heron
Editor: The other day while driving down Broadway I observed a drunken/drugged, bare-chested man pin wheeling onto Broadway without looking either way for traffic, causing multiple cars to slow down in order for him to cross the street. I thought to myself how this scene would look to anyone wanting to start a business or…
Worthless?!
Editor: When Proposition 19 (legalization of cannabis for recreational use) was the hot local issue and there was much talk of making Humboldt County the Napa Valley of cannabis, I proposed to the Humboldt Medical Marijuana Advisory Panel and the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to make Humboldt County the Silicon Valley of cannabis. My…
Find Your Tribe
Editor: What I’ve really been trying to say with my barrage of angry letters (“Mailbox,” Jan. 15, Feb. 5) is that the North Coast Journal has a very bad habit of preaching to the choir and patting themselves on the back for reporting ground-breaking news. Everyone in this county knows that growers are scandalous, from…
Write on
Editor: I have not seen the film A Most Violent Year. Regardless, I find Jennifer Savage’s review (“Filmland,” Feb. 5) to be compelling, well written and without cynicism. It is a delightful read and provides a strong incentive for me to see the film. Bravo, Jennifer. — Stephen Avis, Ferndale
McKinleyville Arts Night
A celebration of local art and artists with music, food and fun. McKinleyville Arts Night is open for all McKinleyville businesses to display the work of local artists on the third Friday of the month. Call 834-6460 or visit www.mckinleyvilleartsnight.com for more information. CALIFORNIA REDWOOD COAST AIRPORT 3561 Boeing Ave. Humboldt County artists Micki Flatmo,…
Tax Returns
A weeeeeird thing is happening in Colorado. All of the tax money the state collected from recreational marijuana transactions during its first year of legalization — $44 million from the 28 percent sales tax — has to be returned, thanks to a tax loophole in the state’s constitution. While high state revenues must have been…
Sticky Fingers
I was a puffy-faced cliché, freshly dumped and lurching around the apartment I’d shared with my boyfriend of four years, stuffing my things into a duffle bag under the bored gaze of our unsympathetic cat. As I scanned the rooms for the bulky sweaters and sad books I’d need to really nail the self-pity, the…
By the Dozen
Humboldt! I hope you’ve been getting enough sleep and eating well because we’ve got a busy weekend ahead. Please note the following options and plan accordingly. Thursday: Stellar hip-hop Call this the “most legit show of the week”: Oakland hip-hop duo Zion I, with special guests Los Rakas and Locksmith at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. On…
Forgiveness
Forgiveness Jesus told us to forgive that’s what I tell myself as I look at the skunk burst open on Highway 101 like a piñata — Amy Fontaine
Lincoln’s Hearse
A couple of Thursdays ago at Blue Ox Millworks, some of the cats were sacked out in the sunshine and others inside the office by crackling wood stoves. Bluto, the golden-eyed, bear-faced dog, flopped like a giant, piled-up rug on some unevenly stacked timbers in the yard. Birds were talking. The air was still. At…
Rough Stuff
Reviews FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. As my wife was quick to point out, my very presence at some movies could, to a stranger, pose problems. And she’s not wrong: The lone man in his 30s attending a cartoon matinee is the tamer, lamer analog of the guy in the van by the playground. I try…
Danger at McCann
Last month, 24-year-old Samantha Dweck was boating on the Eel River with a group from San Francisco when a strong current under the McCann Bridge sucked her kayak into a bridge piling. The kayak capsized, and the current pinned it underwater against the support. Dweck’s companion in the kayak freed himself, but she was unable…
The Three P’s of Spring
It’s February again, and time to start planting. Growing a garden is one of the best ways to get exercise, spend time outdoors and improve your diet and sense of food security, but sometimes it can be difficult to find the motivation. To get back into the swing of things, I like to start with…
Red Carpet Moment
Before you get caught up in Oscar fever, see if the next Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow or Billy Wilder is waiting to be discovered at Humboldt State University right now. Go beyond indie on Friday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre when the HSU Film Showcase gets rolling (free). It’s the…
With a Capital V
On Friday, Feb. 20 through Sunday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. at the D Street Community Center in Arcata, keep the V-Day momentum going with the annual performance of founder Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues, directed by Carly Sherman ($10, $8 seniors and students). The play, which has seen updates, revisions and controversy over…
