Codes, Damned Codes
A clash of values could spell the end for a ‘hippie-rigged’ community in Trinidad
Cover Story
Codes, Damned Codes
Down at the county courthouse there’s a file labeled The County of Humboldt v. Charles Garth and Does 1-25. It’s a code violation case — but there’s some dispute between the parties as to just exactly who’s violating whose code. On one side, there are the residents of a ferny, forested place they call Yee…
I Drink Your Milkshake
Gold. It’s high, record high. Damned near reached $1,000 an ounce. Because oil’s high, high, and the dollar’s a nuthin. And it’s times like these when all us little folk, slumpin’ along worrying and whining about foreclosures and doctors’ bills and such, could steal a sip from that gold-dredgin’ guru who pissed off the Karuk…
Is Rob Arkley a Billionaire?
While he is commonly referred to a either a billionaire or a kazillionaire in the local press and blogosphere, Security National CEO Rob Arkley Jr. does not show up on Forbes Magazine ‘s recently issued list of the world’s billionaires . Forbes online allows you to array the list in various ways. A look at…
Klamath Settlement on NPR
Here. It focuses on PacifiCorp. Strange that there was no mention made of the dissenters — neither the Hupa nor the enviros.
Fortuna Moment
OK, so, the Fortuna City Council was well into its agenda Monday night, in what would be a four-hour meeting after all was said, ranted and done, when Sean Armstrong, project manager for Danco Communities, stood up to answer some questions about his company’s plans to build low-income housing on land the city had bought…
Klamath Video: Take Two
This is another Thomas Dunklin film on the Klamath. Kumbaya …
Klamaty? NEC Gives Restoration Agreement the Thumbs Down
The Northcoast Environmental Center has rejected the Klamath River Restoration Agreement because it doesn’t provide adequate water flows for fish, according to Executive Director Greg King. It’s the same thing the Hoopa Tribe said when the agreement was unveiled last month. In a press release sent out Sunday, the NEC wrote: “The decision not to…
A Town, Trains and Long-Awaited Development
The town of Bill, Wyoming is on one of the busiest train lines in the world in terms of tonnage. It’s also a crew-change station for the Union Pacific railroad. At 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, railroaders roll into town looking for a place to sleep. Nonetheless, since WW II the…
Has Gallegos Appealed to the Supreme Court?
Seems like I’ve been saying this a lot lately, but I’ll say it again: Help me out. Lawyers especially, this time. Look at the last two items on the list, here. Is District Attorney Paul Gallegos trying to take his Pacific Lumber lawsuit to the California Supreme Court? Interesting, too, to note that the Appellate…
Where’s My Agenda!
The County of Humboldt, drunk with power and out for a heavy-metal joyride, today seems hell-bent on pushing the envelope of the Brown Act to its very limits. Here it is 4:30 p.m. Friday, and no agenda posted for the Tuesday morning meet. Where’s my agenda? Meanwhile, the City of Eureka is up and at…
King’s pretty new map
Tim Daniels, of the Bigfoot Bicycle Club, just sent out a note on the club’s message board that the BLM-Whitethorn office has uploaded a map of its emerging mountain bike trail in the Paradise Ridge region of the King Range National Conservation Area. The trail won’t be completed until this fall, but there are some…
Rhody’s On
Well glory Betty be, the Rhody Parade is on after all. Just when my landlady’s rhodies were beginning to relax. Well, think again, dear shrubs, the parade is on and the plucking shall ensue. The town has rallied. Here’s the news release: —– Original Message —– From: Justin Bowser To: ‘Betty’ Sent: Friday, February 29,…
Dramatic New Palco Plan
Judge Richard S. Schmidt only alluded to it briefly in Thursday’s hearing, but a new player has entered the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy proceedings. This party brings an audacious, out-of-the-box plan for the future of the 150-year-old Humboldt County timber company to the table. Rio Dell resident and Humboldt County blogospherian Steve Lewis has officially entered…
‘El Shining’: ¡Muy bueno!
Previews Laura Linney didn’t win an Oscar for The Savages, which opens at long last locally on Friday, Feb. 29, losing out to French actress Marion Cotillard, but Philip Seymour Hoffman won a Best Actor Spirit Award for the film, and the film took Best Screenplay for Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) at the…
The Bees Have Not Yet Left
I woke to the music of your…
Dreamers
Joseph Shabalala, leader and founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, has told the story of his dream many times. He told it to me years ago when the group was on one of many world tours. The dream came in 1964. "In my dreams I heard children singing sweet harmony," he said. "These children were singing…
Photographic Alchemy
Call it alchemy. It isn’t, really, but there is a certain degree of sorcery involved in the creation of a fine photo using the old-school method. You know, the kind of print made back in the day, when photographers used film and did their post-shoot work in a darkroom, not at a computer screen. More…
Incredible Flight
In September of 2007 a one-pound Bar-tailed Godwit, designated E7, completed the longest non-stop flight ever recorded for a bird. This is her story. E7 hatched in the tundra of western Alaska. She dined on insects and then, after fledging, on marine life near the mouth of the Yukon River, storing an immense amount of…
Corky’s Debt to his Father
Album by Mayo Thompson. Drag City. Mayo Thompson’s Corky’s Debt to his Fatherwas first released in 1970, though it was so out of step with other albums of its time its age hardly shows today. The folks at Drag City (who are hell bent on chronicling the seemingly endless navigations of Thompson’s four-decade musical career)…
Amazing Grace
DVD, directed by Michael Apted. 20th Century Fox. Perhaps the most pernicious doctrine of colonialism is the idea that enslavement is in the desire of the oppressed, and that the overthrow of slavery came from the gracious realizations of those in power. Articulated in the toxic notion of the "white man’s burden," as phrased by…
Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
CD by Lightspeed Champion. Domino Recording. It is a surprise to initially hear Lightspeed Champion’s debut, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, especially for those who may be familiar with the UK singer/songwriter (whose real name is Devonte Hynes) from his former band, The Test Icicles, whose jagged thrash punk was near-chaotic. Then again, this recording…
Dinner with George and Martha
Recent quarter-page displays in local newspapers have advertised The Martha Washington Cookbook, by mail, $24. The headline says "Old Cookbook Reveals Amazing Detail’s of Washington’s Dining Habits." There is such a relic, but it is not a cookbook. Several annotated editions have been published since the original manuscript was given to the Pennsylvania Historical Society…
Life Preserver
On a clear day in Petrolia, long-time environmental activist Richard Gienger and Seth Zuckerman, forestry director for the Mattole Restoration Council, sit outside of the council’s office at a weathered picnic table explaining what Zuckerman calls the "vision of stewardship" his organization has for the entire Mattole River watershed. Presently, that vision is focused on…
Game Day
All around the country, lawyers are burning the midnight oil in preparation for this Thursday, Feb. 28, when the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy hits the ninth inning. Sometime soon after court concludes on that day — or possibly even before it concludes — everything’s going to be laid out on the table. There’s going to be…
My Worst Job
I met Dan DeArmond last summer on the property I hoped to subdivide and buy. My friend Dick and I were thinning trees on the entire parcel in preparation for the subdivision. We planned to improve the forest health by clearing around the largest healthiest trees, open up some areas around the homes for improved…
