Broken Trust
‘Offensive’ comments, accusations of dishonesty fracture relationship between Planning Commission and local tribes
Cover Story
Broken Trust
A months-long dispute over a stop-work order issued on the construction of a prominent local developer’s private home bubbled into public view at the Aug. 18 Humboldt County Planning Commission meeting. From the dais, commission Chair Alan Bongio said he’s “lost all trust” in two local tribal governments, while making some far-reaching comments about “Indians”…
Photos: A Brimming Hat Day at the Races
The wild array of inventive and beautiful hats came in useful on a warm, sunny day at the 10th annual Ladies Hat Day at the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale on Saturday. The organizers offered free admission to the fair and an array of attractive prizes to lure the hat wearers to the horserace grandstands.…
Public Health Reports Another COVID Death
Humboldt County Public Health reported today that the county has confirmed a COVID-19 death since its last report Aug. 24. The individual was in their 70s. Three new hospitalizations were also reported and, according to a state database, four people are currently hospitalized with the virus locally, none of whom are under intensive care. The…
‘Forcing the Hand’: Gavin Newsom Leans into Legislative Agenda as First Terms Nears End
As California’s legislative session comes to an end tonight, the priorities and focus of the closing days have been heavily shaped by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who in the final year of his first term has taken significant steps to execute his agenda through legislation like never before. His first three years in office saw Newsom…
Help Paying Water Bills May Be Coming for Low-Income Californians
María Dolores Díaz sighs when she opens her water bill every month because she knows what she’ll see: another bill that she’ll struggle to pay. Diaz looks at the envelope and doesn’t want to open it because she wonders: How much, this time? “Ya nomás miro la carta y ‘aí ya no lo quiero abrir!’…
Nicole Pamela Murray: 1961 to 2022
Nicole Pamela Murray passed away peacefully on August 10, 2022, in Eureka, California. Nicki was born in San Mateo, California on June 28, 1961, and spent her youth in the Bay Area, as well as Montana. She often spoke of how beautiful Montana was and of her many adventures there. When Nicki was a teenager,…
Ranchers, Tribes, State Officials Clash Over Shasta River Water
The land that Jim Scala and his family have been ranching for three generations is parched and brown as far as he can see. The pond where his cattle used to drink is now a puddle, ringed with cracked mud. In other years, water pumped from the Shasta River would have periodically flooded this land,…
Paul Bradshaw Windes: 1968-2022
Paul Bradshaw Windes “Brad” was born on May 17, 1968, in Columbia, Missouri, and died on Aug. 19, 2022, in Eureka, California, the town he grew up in. He was born to Janet Lafferty Windes (April, 28, 1942) and William E Windes (Feb. 02, 1942 to Oct. 25, 2017). He left behind his wife Janet,…
T-minus 3 Days for California Lawmakers
The two-year legislative session ends Wednesday at midnight, giving Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers just three days to hammer out agreements on complex, controversial bills and budget items encompassing everything from nuclear power to abortion to youth vaccination. According to veteran Sacramento lobbyist Chris Micheli, legislators still need to determine the fate of about…
NCJ Preview: Planning Commission Blow-up, Fair Food Throw-down
This week we’re looking into the conflict that began with a developer violating the terms of his land use permits and bubbled over at a Humboldt County Planning Commission meeting with accusations of lying, “offensive” comments and a damaged relationship between the commission and local Native tribes. Then we’ll swing over to the Humboldt County…
‘Close to the Line:’ California’s Top Campaign Finance Watchdog Wants a Deeper Look at Donor Network
California’s campaign finance regulator will not investigate a complaint into Govern For California, the subject of a CalMatters investigation that explored the nonprofit’s role influencing legislative elections and “pushing the envelope” of state campaign finance law. But the chairperson of the Fair Political Practices Commission said he would seek to develop new regulations more clearly…
Electric Day in California: State to Phase Out Sales of Gas Cars
UPDATE: According to media reports, the California Air Resources Board voted to move ahead with phasing out the sale of gas cars in the state in an effort to combat climate change. PREVIOUS: In its biggest move yet to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and fight climate change, California is poised today to enact the…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks, I urge you to flee from stale and rigid certainty. Rebel against dogmatic attitudes and arrogant opinions. Be skeptical of unequivocal answers to nuanced questions. Instead, dear Aries, give your amused reverence to all that’s mysterious and enigmatic. Bask in the glimmer of intriguing paradoxes. Draw inspiration…
Humboldt Moves to Overhaul Bus Fleet
The redwood curtain is poised to start lifting, at least a bit, courtesy of the Schatz Energy Lab and the Humboldt Transit Authority. If all goes as planned, by 2024, the HTA will be running state-of-the-art, hydrogen fuel cell electric buses to Ukiah. There, connections can be made to Mendocino County’s transit system, and from…
Goodbye, August
Laying out in my sunny backyard last weekend with my friend Chini and the two gray sister cats that make up my brood, I had a moment of pure summer idyll. It might have had something to do with practicing my pitch wind-up with a few yard apples, or the sheer blue of the sky…
What’s Good at the County Fair
The dizzying labyrinth of a funnel cake will forever draw me in. A pastel tuft of cotton candy will always retain its magic. That these are only in reach for a couple weeks each year just raises their stock — absence makes the sweet tooth fonder. Eel River Valley residents might feel similarly enticed by…
Tamar Atik’s Arcata Spectacle
If you have spent any time in Arcata lately, you will have noticed a lot of changes, many of which cause no shortage of griping among the citizenry. I’m talking about new construction and roadwork, and one of my own private gripes: address plaques with numerical fonts that summon visions of tony SoCal neighborhoods, here…
Trinidad Arts Night
Venues through town will feature a variety of art and music; activities include a skate park, games, fire spinning and face painting. At the end of the evening, Westhaven Center for the Arts presents a special music event from 8 to 10 p.m. with The Bayou Swamis at Trinidad Town Hall. Dancefloor/refreshments available ($5-$20 sliding…
Rising up at the Klamath Salmon Festival
The 58th annual Klamath Salmon Festival got underway on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 20, after a two-year pandemic break. The usual Fogust low clouds soon cleared and, thankfully, the only smoke in the air was coming from the salmon barbecue pit — no wildfire smoke blew in from the nearby inland fires. The Yurok…
Albacore Go Wide-Open Monday
When the ocean conditions and water temperatures align, there’s always that chance at an epic day of tuna fishing. And Monday was just that day. It was a one-day weather window and those who jumped at the opportunity were rewarded with coolers full of tuna. This wasn’t a day about trying to come back to…
I Love My Dad and The Forgiven Face Consequences
I LOVE MY DAD. Having recently entered into a misguided, increasingly heated exchange with parties who shall remain nameless (but for their frequent bylines in these pages) regarding the definition and origin of the phrase “milkshake duck,” while simultaneously engaging a Zoomer in spirited debate in order to better parse and decode the appeal of…
‘I Came Out Fine’
Editor: This week’s edition contained a cartoon comparing a person refusing vaccination with a person refusing to evacuate in a fire and a person refusing to obey the speed limit (Mailbox, Aug. 18). It was demeaning and hurtful to people because of a healthcare decision. I made this decision after agonizing thought and research. When I got COVID, I…
Dolos No. 1972 Finds a New Home
“Without the dolosse, we wouldn’t have an entrance bar. We wouldn’t have commercial fishing. We wouldn’t have sports fishing. We wouldn’t have ship traffic. We wouldn’t have any of that. That’s how important these [dolosse] are.” — Leroy Zerlang, Chair of the Humboldt Harbor Safety Committee I bet you played jacks as a kid. I…
Dear Deer
Every day you trespass across my lawn eating a path through thick grasses I neglect to mow, and then you help yourself to the row of blackberries planted by no one I recall I know and now you bring your polka-dot twins who balance on hind foot tip toes to reach higher rows and then…
