Broadband to the Backwoods
Bringing Humboldt up to speed, the wireless way
Cover Story
Broadband to the Backwoods
The cream-colored box marked "RuralConnect™Trailblazer™" is just a display model mounted on a telescoping pole in the large, dark garage in what was once the Arcata headquarters of Yakima, now home to Carlson Wireless Technologies Inc. It’s one element in an exhibit the company is assembling for an upcoming telecom trade show. The square, gunmetal…
Boys making noise
This case is not going to languish very long," said Corpus Christi attorney Shelby Jordan, representing the Maxxam Corp.’s interests at the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy trial Friday morning. "Everyone who comes here is aware that you’re in and out with all due speed." Ho, was that a slip of the tongue, counselor? You meant it…
Tim’s Books
It was a melancholy time on the Northcoast Environmental Center’s front porch last Friday. Volunteers had set up three or four folding tables, and on each of them they had placed hundreds of books. These were the books that didn’t sell at a big booksale the weekend previous. Now they were selling for 25 cents…
Get Your Glitter On
If you hiked to the top floor of the Eureka Municipal Auditorium last Saturday night, it might have made you dizzy. No, not the height – though it was plummetous – but the action down below on the dance floor. Nearly 2,000 people had unwittingly formed themselves into a pulsing neon arrow (sans the real…
Pedagogue Cobb
A few weeks past, an explosion was reported at Arcata High School. Witnesses said that it seemed to issue from Doug Johnson’s AP Government class and that it had a vaguely Texan accent. That explosion was David Cobb. Cobb was the last in a trio of speakers to visit the 16 Arcata High AP Government…
Overbalanced
In the cardinal rules of journalism, balance ranks high. But it is a difficult thing for a reporter to achieve. Often that’s because in trying to get two sides to a story – or better yet, all sides to a story – a reporter risks giving too much weight to representatives of one side, given…
The Business of Bees
I’ve been away from the garden too long. After a couple of months on the road, the place is a mess. Those hard freezes back in January turned some of my favorite shrubs into popsicles, but somehow spared the weeds, which have taken over. I’ve got some serious garden restoration work to do – and…
Emerging
Early last year, six Eureka teens were moved to action when a peer was involved in a violent crime. This was not the first incident – they had been aware for some time of dangerous levels of drug use and violent behavior among their cohort. Enough was enough, they thought. It was time to do…
Extreme Dining and Copyrighted Food
Three years ago we dined at the legendary Roxanne’s, the nation’s most talked – about vegan shrine, in Larkspur. The creation of a dot-com millionaire and his new wife, a glamorous and innovative chef, it was the first elegant "raw foods" restaurant. Nothing at Roxanne’s was heated to more than 118 degrees F. This meant…
Golden?
For some reason the band portrait from San Francisco-based jamband New Monsoon had me feeling a bit nostalgic. I was a teenager living in the Bay Area when the Summer of Love rolled around 40 years ago. I know there’s some sort of kinship between modern jambands and the bands I heard that summer, at…
