Cover Story
Combating the Barred Owl Invasion
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is moving forward with a plan to kill thousands of invasive owls in targeted areas, including parts of the North Coast, in an effort to stave off extinction of the northern spotted owl. Under the recently released management strategy, the service will partner with “interested tribes, federal and state…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Oct. 16
It’s the last night for Jenny Scheinman Presents All Species Parade at the Arcata Playhouse at 7 p.m. This is a love-letter suite of songs for her native Humboldt County, so it behooves us to give this gal a listen, because she is one of the treasures of our home who has broken containment and…
RCEA Board to Again Discuss Nuclear Option
Perhaps symbolically underscoring the notion that nuclear half-lives are always longer than they seem, the Redwood Coast Energy Authority Board of Directors will once again discuss whether the agency should accept an offer of free nuclear power at its meeting later this month. Last month, the board, acting with some members absent, failed to reach…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Oct. 15
Hey daddios, daddiettes and all hep-cats in between, it’s Tuesday night, so that means another freebie at the Speakeasy by one of our most talented groups of jazz-bos, the Opera Alley Cats. Music starts at 7 p.m. (what is it with that hour and this week?) and a responsible cocktail or two will only enhance…
Cosmic Viewing: Rare Comet is Making an Appearance
After being treated to an encore of the Northern Lights in recent weeks, skywatchers in Humboldt County have the chance to view another celestial phenomena in the comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. In what NASA describes as a “once-in-80,000-years sight,” the comet will be visible low in the horizon to the west after sunset, with the best likelihood…
Missing 4-Year-Old Girl Found Safe
A missing 4-year-old girl was found safe Saturday by deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office after conversations between her father and detectives led to the discovery of her location. Thompson Thompson was reported missing Oct. 9 by her legal guardian after she was not brought back from an Oct. 5 visit with her father…
Music Tonight: Monday, Oct. 14
Here’s an interesting one happening at Humbrews at 8 p.m. Czech group Uz Jsme Doma (“We are home,” according to Google translate) is a mash-up band of punky prog, jazz and Eastern European tones, who have been around long enough to have toured the world and once been considered youthful subversives in their native, well,…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Oct. 13
DuffyxUhlmann is an acoustic guitar duo featuring two players from the modern alternative scene, most notably having been associated with Perfume Genius and Hand Habits. They will be joined by local music master John Wood, of Black Keys fame, for a night of some genuinely intense musical frisson. The spot is the Sanctuary, a perfect…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Oct. 12
The Miniplex is the place to be tonight if you are looking for the sort of dreamy pop music that makes one gaze down in reflection at one’s navel or shoes. Seattle’s MØAA plays a series of nocturnal submissions designed to make the mind fill in unreal spaces between the buildings of bedsore reality. And…
Music Tonight: Friday, Oct. 11
I love a good show at the Arcata Veterans Hall, and tonight’s line-up can’t be beat, especially the headliners. I’m talking about the return of the Bow-Legged Buzzards, my favorite rot-gut country thrashers led by the devil’s own fiddler himself, Phill Irvine. Rounding out the bill are mega-riffsters Ultramafic and Marble Jar, for whom I…
Photos: Redwood Coast Music Fest’s Tune Up
Showing good reinvention skills over the decades since its “Dixieland Jazz” start in 1990, the 32nd annual Redwood Coast Music Festival in Eureka last week showcased more than 100 sets of American roots music, including blues, swing, jazz, Zydeco, rockabilly, Western swing and country over four days. (See the slideshow below for highlights.) “This year’s festival…
Noni the Black Bear, Known Fondly as ‘Twinkle Toes,’ Dies
Noni the black bear, known by her Sequoia Park Zoo caretakers as “twinkle toes” for her habit of perching on the thinnest branches at the top of the redwood trees in her enclosure, has died. She was 2. The Sequoia Park Zoo announced her passing in a social media post today, nearly a week after…
Sheriff’s Office Asks Public’s Help in Locating Missing 4 Year Old
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in locating a missing 4-year-old girl “abducted under suspicious circumstances.” According to a news release, Thompson Thompson was reported missing Oct. 9 by her legal guardian after her father Peter Thompson did not bring her back from a scheduled visitation on Oct. 5. “The…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Oct. 10
It’s a great night to pre-game and tailgate the upcoming weekend, as we have an early evening metal show at the Siren’s Song Tavern at 7 p.m. The line-up consists of Oakland’s Merked, an insanely fast and unrelenting grind-type of act, along with local heroes Kolonizer — the punk band with the delightful pink Barbie…
‘Censoring Free Speech
Editor: I appreciated Susan Lefever’s asking Amy Gustin to supply specifics regarding her allegation that the Biden/Harris admin is censoring free speech (Mailbox, Oct. 3). I hope Amy responds; I, too, wanted to respond. I have accumulated a lot of data about this; here are just two examples: 1) In answering to a House Subcommittee on the…
‘A Stupid Idea’
Editor: California Gov. Newsom “loaned” PG&E $1.4 billion for five or six years of nuclear power (“Conflicted RCEA Board Passes on Nuclear Power,” Oct. 3)? I have many questions about taxpayer money being used for this purpose. What is the interest rate and how long is the loan for and where did the funds come…
John Brown’s Body
I’ve been trying to make sense of how so many people, some of whom I once considered to be moral, ethical, and generally “good eggs,” as Bertie Wooster would say, can’t seem to take a hard line on the genocide our country is currently abetting in Palestine and now Lebanon. Some things don’t have the…
‘Shame’
Editor: With the preponderance of click bait gotcha, shockya headlines, we news consumers have become somewhat unshockable. The experience Anna Nusslock endured at St. Joe’s hospital broke through that wall (“State Sues St. Joseph Hospital,” Oct. 3). As stated in the press release about the lawsuit against St. Joe’s hospital, ( Thank you Attorney General Bonta),…
Taste of Main Street Returns
In what felt like a shrewd tactical move, my companions and I started with dessert. Once we’d picked up our Taste of Main Street passes, it was only a block’s walk to Living the Dream Ice Cream, where miniature scoops spiked with shards of waffle cone were on offer and the line hadn’t yet extended…
‘Standard Suppression Tactics’
Editor: In 1985 Columbia University students blockaded Hamilton Hall for 21 days to demand divestment from apartheid South Africa. The University acceded six months later and the following year the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Antiapartheid Act. Protests are occasionally successful in changing policy. The moral issue protested at Cal-Poly (“The Shit Show,” Oct. 3)…
Temporary Insanity
I’ve been a pretty casual birder all my life. I do a little birding every day and often take photos, but seldom range far afield. Sometimes I chase local rarities if they’re easy to get to; I’d rather listen to a Giants game from my cushy recliner than tromp through brambles and poison oak for…
Song Sparrow
Framed by towering, lacy hollyhocks Softly rolling in the morning breeze You tip at the rim of the birdbath Like the teeter totter of my childhood Up and down Narrow tail reaching skyward Then dipping to the deck Again and again And I forget about Gaza and Paris And revel in the moment — Jean…
A Villain Intervention for Rob Arkley
Maleficent: Hey, Rob. Have a seat. So, this isn’t going to be our usual brunch, cackling over mimosas and the ruination of our enemies. Frankly, this Measure F campaign has us … concerned. Joker: We’ve always supported your work, Rob. Cashing in on those foreclosed homes, spreading all that dark money around, bankrolling those junkets…
Alone Together
HIS THREE DAUGHTERS. Deep into the third act of writer-director Azazel Jacobs’ (French Exit, 2020; Terri, 2011) latest, a dying man’s thoughts on obituary are paraphrased by one of his titular daughters. To further paraphrase, a description of the departed’s life can only fail to convey the totality of that life and its end; only…
Plenty o’ Nuttin’
“A physicist’s speculations do not morph, as if by cosmological alchemy or professional courtesy, from metaphysics into established physics.” — Robert Lawrence Kuhn, host of PBS’ Closer to Truth series Why is there something rather than nothing? A flurry of new scientific papers has recently appeared in response to this decades-old question. “Scientific” here means…
No on F
Thankfully, it’s rare a local item appears on our ballot here in Humboldt County that so perfectly encapsulates so much of what’s wrong with our politics. But enter Measure F, the initiative embodiment of deep-monied special interests, scorched earth tactics, deceitful ad campaigns and the politics of petty vengeance. In the strongest possible terms, we…
‘We Deserve Better’
Editor: Thanks to the editor for giving us a forum to talk to people we might not otherwise know and appreciate. I will respond to “Characters of Integrity” (Mailbox, Oct. 3) by referring to the recent NY Times editorial board editorial listing over 90 quotes from department heads and support staff who worked for Trump…
‘Only Trump’
Editor: It is disappointing to see people abandon the principle of free speech. Their certainty that the government and corporate media are always correct is also perplexing (Mailbox, Oct. 3). Unfortunately, the Democrats’ betrayal of their principles also includes their transformation into warmongers. Harris is clearly the war machine’s preferred candidate. She has steadfastly demonstrated her…
‘No on F’
Editor: As the former owner and operator of a popular family restaurant in Old Town, Eureka, we urge voters to reject “Measure F” Nov. 5. Voting “No on F” removes an obstacle to Eureka’s plans for replacing some parking with affordable housing, benefiting current and future businesses with a larger hiring pool and increased sales from hundreds of…
‘Yes on F’
Editor: Common sense tells us that the city can’t remove 218-plus off-street parking spaces while adding 282-plus new apartments — and their vehicles — without unintended consequences. A yes vote on Measure F requires off-street parking at current levels, possibly building above these five parking lots, a common practice elsewhere in California. Hundreds of new…
Vote Kati
Editor: Kati Moulton serves our city so well. Kati asked our community, how can I be of service and for four years, she has followed through. Kati has held town halls genuinely asking her neighbors, what are your concerns? What are your ideas? She brought your voice into the rooms where decisions are made about…
‘Don’t Let Bongio Back’
Editor: We can’t live without clean water. But we can live without malfeasance, sprawling development and cronyism. The former is on your HCSD ballot in the form of Heidi Benzonelli and Michael Hansen. The latter (sigh) in the form of Alan Bongio’s potential comeback. Under the current, respectful, leadership of Benzonelli, our water board directs…
‘No on O’
Editor: Measure O will increase the County sales tax by 1 percent. Eureka has a 9.25 percent sales tax. Arcata and Fortuna are proposing to follow. If approved, our sales tax in the largest commercial areas in the county would be 10.25 percent, which is among the highest in the entire U.S. The sales tax…
