Breakdown
California’s jails and prisons are becoming ground zero in the state’s mental health crisis, a report from CALmatters by Jocelyn Wiener
Oscar Night Gold: Photos from the Red Carpet Gala
Once again, the Academy Awards lit up the screen at the Eureka Theater for the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission’s sixth annual Red Carpet Gala. Commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine and her crew handed out awards to film-friendly folks and businesses during commercial breaks and the crowd cheered the on-screen wins. Well, most of them. And, as they do…
Rescue Operation Underway in Flooded Eel River
There is a rescue operation underway in the floodwaters of the Eel River, where a rescue boat has responded to reports of multiple people on a tractor, according to scanner traffic and reports from people at the scene. The incident was first reported at 7:45 p.m. and, at 8:25 p.m., a responding officer reported being…
Record Rain Wreaking Havoc on Humboldt
Roads are flooding, rivers are rising and the Coast Guard is urging boat owners to check on their vessels in the wake of record rainfall over the last two days that has inundated the region. According to the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services, the local Red Cross has opened an evacuation center at the…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Date
Sundressed is an Arizona band built around the songs of founder Trevor Hedges, whose histrionic sobriety is a force of power and effect beyond recall in the DNA of the music. This is rock music catharsis and there are qualified technicians along for the ride. Specifically, there is awakebutstillinbed from San Jose, as well as…
Hinson Guilty of Manslaughter in SoHum Beating Death
William Lamar Hinson III was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter “with the special allegation that he personally used a deadly weapon” in the 2015 killing Khan Lam in Garberville, according to a press release sent by the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office. Lam, 37, was involved in a physical altercation with a family member in…
EPD Investigating Man’s Death as a Homicide
The Eureka Police Department is investigating the death of a 64-year-old man found dead in an E Street apartment Feb. 22 as a homicide. Authorities are releasing few details, including the cause of Raymond Prudhomme’s death, which was determined during a Feb. 23 autopsy. According to a release, no suspects have been “identified at this…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Date
Cape Breton fiddlers, Canadian masters of the form, and wife and husband duo Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy bring their ecstatic bow and string melodic ascendance to the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts this evening at 7 p.m. ($25-$49). Along with the Highland Celtic fiddle regalia imported to the maritime provinces of Canada, this…
With Wet Week Ahead, Flood Warnings Issued
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch advisory as rainfall is expected to continue to hit most of Humboldt County today and into tomorrow morning. With continuous rainfall forecast today through tomorrow morning, rivers are rising, and roads with poor drainage and low-lying areas are also at risk of flooding, according to Kathleen…
101 Opened After Slide South of Crescent City
U.S. Highway 101 between Klamath and Crescent City has reopened after a slide closed it last night about 8:50 p.m. Caltrans District One tweeted almost exactly 12 hours later at 8:50 a.m., “US 101 OPEN, One-Way…Expect 15-20 minute delays.” Crews worked through the night and early morning hours to get the road re-opened after the…
Music Tonight: Monday, Date
It’s a sleepy midwinter night out here in the fringe-lit sticks of the great southern tip of the Pacific Northwest. However, we still have some free musical options and for that we should thank the great machines of human grace in our wet and remote outpost. Steve Lloyd entertains the Clam Beach Tavern at 6…
HumBug: Spring Wildflowers and the Bees that Love Them
To be honest opportunities for a bug photographer have been rather slim lately with all the rain and cold weather. The other night, coming home late I found a nearly comatose bumblebee on my lucky horse shoe. Of all the members of the order Hymenoptera (which translates to, “membrane wing”) which includes ants, bees, wasps,…
Big Changes Considered for 101 Through Eureka
Few people drive through Eureka for the fun of it. If you approach the town from the north during the morning commute, you’re often greeted by a long line of stalled traffic waiting to get through the intersection at V and Fourth streets. On a bad day, the back-up may begin out on the freeway.…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Feb. 24
Oh my, there’s another metal show at the Siren’s Song this evening. If you stack your pocket change in the right sock this week (you know the one, the purple beast you keep knotted up next to your bed, full of coins to deal defensive violence upon any midnight intruder who dares to interrupt your…
Art by Lyn Risling at HSU’s Goudi’ni Native American Arts Gallery
Local artist Lyn Risling’s new exhibit Reconnecting: A Cultural Journey, Art by Lyn Risling is on display now though Mar. 9 at the Goudi’ni Native American Arts Gallery at Humboldt State University, showcasing her paintings, as well as ceremonial regalia and Native American baskets. Gallery hours are Tuesday and Wednesday noon to 5 p.m., and…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Feb. 23
Rita Hosking is a folk musician and a contemporary singer-songwriter who is not only from Northern California — the southern part anyway, Davis and Sacramento — she also writes songs with relevance to the lives of those of us in the economically inconvenient part of the state. She and her multi-instrumentalist musical partner Sean Feder…
Hey, People, Leave Those Pups Alone
The Northcoast Marine Mammal Center is reminding the public that pupping season is here and that adorable little baby seal on beach is likely just waiting for its mom to return from a food-finding foray. In other words, as the center emphasizes, “please do NOT touch it!” “Most likely its mom is foraging offshore and…
And the Emcee is …
For the first time in 30 years, the Academy Awards will be without an emcee. Designated host Kevin Hart dropped out after homophobic remarks from his past surfaced and it appears no one dares step in and take the reins. The last time the Academy Awards went without a host, the world got that Rob…
Harbor District Declares State of Emergency
The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District voted unanimously at a special meeting yesterday to declare a state of emergency due to increased sedimentation in the channel into Humboldt Bay that is causing dangerous conditions and imperiling the county’s fuel supply. The vote came after the district received the results of depth testing by…
Charles Washington Soul Food Dinner,
Join with members of the community to enjoy fried chicken, greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread, mac and cheese, live music and more at the Eureka branch of the NAACP’s annual fundraiser, the Charles Washington Soul Food Dinner, Saturday, Feb. 23 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Eureka Woman’s Club ($20).
Music Tonight: Friday, Feb. 22
Gearing up to full-bore carnival season requires an appreciation of the slow motion of both the winter thaw into spring and the stutter-start dance of ecstasy and repentance that comes with a full immersion into pre-Lent mysticism. Thankfully, you can find a free shortcut there this evening at The Miniplex at the premier of the…
Jerry Martien Returns to the Arcata Playhouse
Poet Jerry Martien and pals return to the Arcata Playhouse for a special Humboldt homecoming. Musicians Thad Beckman, Danny Montgomery, Gary Davidson and Fred Neighbor (the Band of Angels) join Martien for an evening of spoken word and music Thursday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. ($15).
North Coast Night Light: Freshwater Lagoon
Sometimes a creative urge will drive me nutty unless I can find a way to make something. I’m an artist but I am only interested in one medium: photography, which of course includes working with photos after taking the picture, whether with current digital tools or in the darkrooms of old as I started out.…
PIT Count Finds Almost 1,500 People Without Shelter in Humboldt
Almost 1,500 people spent the night of Jan. 22 without shelter in Humboldt County, according to results of the Point in Time count released by the county Department of Health and Human Services. The biennial count held Jan. 23 found that 1,473 people had experienced unsheltered homelessness the night before, more than double the number…
Swayze’s Choice
The competition for your Friday night could be a no brainer or a nail biter. Two movies, both beloved, both long gone from their first-run, full-screen heydays, return to larger-than-life glory this weekend — on the same damn night. In what I’m calling the “Battle of the Double D movies” or “A Tale of Two…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Feb. 21
It’s a nice showcase of multi-medium storytelling at the Outer Space tonight at 7 p.m. Cookie Tongue is from Brooklyn and specializes in an intersectional sound that meets at an asterisk center at the junction of folk music, fairy tales and urban living. Local sweetness will be provided by the anti-rave dance dynamics of Complex…
McKinley to be Removed, Sent to Ohio in Very Near Future
President William McKinley’s days on the Arcata Plaza are officially numbered. The Arcata City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to move forward with the removal of the statue of McKinley at the city’s center and to have the statue moved to Canton, Ohio, which has promised to fund the effort. Without any discussion, the council voted…
Facing the Cost of California’s Mental Health Crisis
Working in Old Town Eureka, we see California’s mental health crisis play out daily: the unshaven man draped in a wet blanket, standing on a street corner talking to himself; the woman with disheveled hair pulling a rolling suitcase and screaming a guttural cry so blood-curdling you’d swear she was being stabbed to death; the…
‘Fragmented and Uncoordinated’
California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom made national news last week, announcing during his State of the State address that he would be withdrawing most of the state’s National Guard troops along the U.S.-Mexico border, even as President Trump was readying to declare a national emergency. The move was seen nationally as the latest battle cry from…
‘Good Priests’
Editor: I just read your article, “Rid me of this Troublesome Priest” (Feb. 7), and I would like to share a few things. As the director of the HSU Newman Center, I apologize for not being able to get back to the Journal before press time. The acting chaplain, a volunteer deacon from Eureka, a retired…
Priestly ‘Prequal’
Editor: Reading the evidently well-researched and well-written feature article in the Feb 7 issue of the NCJ triggered recollections of its “prequel”of nearly 20 years ago, published in issue 122 (May/mid-June 2000) of Mendocino County’s New Settler Interview. Pages 51 through 63 of that issue describe in excruciating detail (under the title “Woman of Integrity: Sister…
‘The Right Thing’
Editor: I support the Green New Deal because it is the only legislation ever proposed in our country that has the power and scope to address the climate emergency (“Huffman Appointed to New Congressional Climate Crisis Committee,” posted Feb. 7). The latest United Nations report on climate says that we have 12 years to totally…
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Corrections
The article “Bottled up at Tomaso’s” in the Feb. 14, 2019, edition of the North Coast Journal incorrectly stated the year Ramone’s Opera Alley Café opened. The café opened in 1981. In the same edition, the story “Norweigan Company Casts Bid for Fish Farm” incorrectly described the relationship between Nordic Aquafarms and Humboldt Baykeeper. The…
Delusion is My (and Your) Middle Name
Quick quiz: Would you rather receive $100 right now or $120 a month from now? Most people take the $100 right now, despite the extraordinary offer of 20 percent per month interest. Let’s do that again. Would you take $100 a year from now or $120 13 months from now? Most people choose $120, even…
Funny en Español
A modestly-sized audience listened attentively before cracking into applause at the Savage Henry Comedy Club. Bursts of laughter filled the back room after a joke in Spanish about the difference between Guatemalans and Mexicans. “En México tienen el taco, el burrito, la tostada,” Nando Molina, a fixture in the Eureka comedy scene, said. “En Guatemala…
Tell Me a Story
This week’s live treats mostly belong to the spectre of folk music. And that’s OK, because folk music is a large umbrella whose shade covers quite a lot of ground. We also have storytelling covered and likewise dance music, fiddles, carnival sounds, metal and lo-fi tunes. Homegrown music rules this week’s entertainment and all you…
What to Eat Monday, Friday and Until the Crab Runs Out
Crab it while you can Domoic acid and low weights have led to enough crab-less Christmases to keep us from taking Dungeness for granted. Crack ’em while we’ve got ’em, folks. And if you’re up for the luxury of feasting on the sweet meat without wielding a mallet, order it out. Cross your fingers, kiss your St.…
The Spear Fishing Huntress
Brandi Easter is a tallish, strong woman with shades of mermaid-green hair hiding along her shoulders. As most competitive spearfishers do, she has a day job. She’s a commercial photographer. On the table in her studio where we met was a bevy of Lacey’s Cookies, her latest project. She’s been sprinting around all week trying…
Trinidad Blue
Quiet hamlet, I call home. Cirrus skyscape With abundance Of blue. Redwood friends Confiding to me, Their silent stories Of a century or more. Beaches magnificent In their repose, Beneath the history Below my feet. My delicate Bird-life friends, Sonorous in their greetings Of another tranquil Morning day Such elixir, My Trinidad Blue.
California’s Jails and Prisons Becoming Ground Zero in the State’s Mental Health Crisis
Jeffrey Jurgens stood in a cage in an orange jumpsuit, screaming that he was Jesus Christ. From her seat in the Sacramento courtroom, his mother watched through tears. Joanna Jurgens knew how important it was for the district attorney prosecuting Jeffrey for stealing a car — and the judge deciding his fate — to see…
Scrambling for Solutions as Mentally Ill Fill Jails and Prisons
The population of mentally ill inmates in the Humboldt County jail has grown so quickly the sheriff has modified plans for an expansion project to include a program designed to treat defendants ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial. Mirroring a statewide trend, local officials say they have seen a sharp increase in the percentage of…
Scrapping Alita
Reviews ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. Well, shit. As I sit quietly with the fortunately fading memory of this movie, I am faced with dilemma: Did I even try to want to like it? Did I sacrifice that crucial tenet to preconceived notions, early onset joylessness and dismay at copycat world-building? As one might already have gleaned,…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In December 1915, the California city of San Diego was suffering from a draught. City officials hired a professional “moisture accelerator” named Charles Hatfield, who promised to make it rain. Soon Hatfield was shooting explosions of a secret blend of chemicals into the sky from the top of a tower. The…
