Empire Falters
Old Charlie Hansen’s truck stop might close as the future zooms past
Cover Story
Empire Falters
That last day, the old man arose at 5:30 in the morning, same as he always did, got into his old white Ford pickup and drove from the big farmhouse down the road to the ranch to feed the cows, then headed the short distance over to Hansen’s Truck Stop. He went inside the warm…
Trial Briefs in the Martin Cotton Case
Last week we previewed the upcoming federal civil suit over the strange death of Martin Cotton II back in 2007. Cotton died of a subdural hematoma in the Humboldt County Jail following a violent struggle with the Eureka Police Department. After the jump: The three trial briefs filed with the Federal District Court of Northern California.…
County Home Prices Drop to Lowest Level Since 2004
The median price of a house sold in Humboldt County has dropped to its lowest level since March of 2004, according to data released today by the Humboldt Association of Realtors (HAR). The October value of $238,000 represents a 32 percent decline from the peak of the housing bubble — in March, 2006 — when…
Garbage, From One Humboldt to Another
Recology, the San Francisco-based parent company of Recology Humboldt County (nee City Garbage Company of Eureka), is facing growing resistance to plans for a massive dump in the middle of the Nevada desert. The proposed Jungo Landfill, which would receive as much as 4,000 tons of garbage daily, is slated to be located in the Black…
Weird Midnight Encounter on 101 at Benbow Leads to Shooting
From the Sheriff’s Office: Late last night Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a report that a man had been shot on US Highway 101 near Benbow. At about 11:45 p.m., deputies arrived and found that a man had been shot; and the man who shot the other man was the reporting party. The driver…
Saddest Tree Now Sadder
Before. After:
Naval Gazing, Redux
When the Journal first reported on the U.S. Navy’s plans to increase training in the Northwest Training Range Complex in January, 2009, reaction was slight. Since then, environmental groups and city councils have joined what the SF Chron calls “a growing chorus” of governmental bodies and citizens resistant to what they see as a lack…
We Do Urgent
Editor: I would like to congratulate you on your recent article, “Lack of Urgency” (Nov. 18). The article was well written and attempted to provide viewpoints from multiple sides. There is one glaring error in the headline of the article. Your statement, “The new medical tower at St. Joe’s will put an end to the…
Moving On
Ouch! It saddens me to begin with unhappy tidings my first time writing Art Beat, but the Accident Galley is on its way out. Co-owners Phyllis Barba and Matthew Ananda Oliveri supplied the details. “Foremost,” said Matthew, “we would like to say to all of our friends and the public that closing the gallery was…
HAF: Still Here
Editor: As the Board Chair of the Humboldt Area Foundation, I want to assure you that our focus and mission remain unchanged (“Town Dandy,” Nov. 18). The North Coast Region can count on us to be a philanthropic cornerstone, lending our support in areas of community and economic development where there is a good opportunity…
Advent Poem
So far, the Wise Men have not …
Stay Off My Lawn
Editor: Regarding your “Ignorant Little Snots” and “Uppity, Too” titles in recent “Mailbox” columns (Nov. 18, 25), I ask: What kind of “community” newspaper insults its readers when they take the time to voice their concerns in a letter to the editor? Regardless of what you think about the letters to the Journal, a true…
Place Names of Humboldt County, California: A Compendium 1542-2009
The title of this new edition of the Turners’ book is too modest. Although their 304-page geographical history contains thousands of Humboldt County place names, each name also gets its own paragraph of concise historical information, a detailed list of references, and sometimes even a photo. Take, for example, the town of Crannell, known to…
Innundir Skinni
When Icelandic singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Ólöf (pronounced Oluff) Arnalds’ 2007 debut, Vid Og Vid, sold out its initial pressing of 4,000 copies in Iceland, the spare recording of eclectic folk songs nearly reached “gold” status. (In a country of just over 300,000 people, selling 5,000 or more records is considered a “gold record.”) The country’s best-known musical…
Arts Alive!
1. WORLD CUP 1626 F St. Kelly Myers. 1a. NOCTURNUM 206 W. Sixth St.2. TREASURE TROVE 609 E St. Sharon McCormack, wreaths and floral displays. 3. EUREKA INN 518 Seventh St. Trey Hale, landscape and nature photographs; Music with Dave Fouché; Community Christmas tree.4. HUMBOLDT ARTS COUNCIL at the Morris Graves Museum of Art 636…
The Reggae Ambassador
In 1973, around the time the seminal reggae movie The Harder They Come was hipping Americans to a new sound out of Jamaica, Stephen “Cat” Coore jumped ship from the Kingston band Inner Circle to form a new group, Third World, fusing Jamaica’s reggae beat with shades of soul, R&B, even classical music. (In addition…
Dotting the Eyes
LASIK, that is, laser surgery to precisely reshape the cornea — the outer transparent part of the eye — has become commonplace, with over a million procedures performed each year in the U.S. Instead of wearing glasses (in front of the eyes) or contact lenses (on the eyes), many people can now have poor vision…
Dec. 1-15, 2010
Dec. 1. Birthdate, in 1761, of Anna Maria Grosholtz, later known as Madame Tussaud. As a young woman during the French Revolution she found work at the Palais-Royal waxworks, where she helped create exhibits depicting the vain young Queen sitting in her boudoir. Such voyeuristic tableaux incited rage among the Parisians; the bloody revolution that…
Road Toons
The story of “The Town Musicians of Bremen” by the Brothers Grimm inspired many international versions, especially animations: an early black and white Disney, a 1935 Comicolor, and later toons in the Soviet Union, Germany and Italy. So when the international cast from the Dell’Arte International School took on the story for Dell’Arte’s Christmas road…
Something to Sneeze At
The home of former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss burned down last week in a place called Pahrump in the Nevada desert. No one was hurt. Is that something you needed or wanted to know? I read it in the San Francisco Chronicle. It irritates me that I lack the memory to retain new pieces of…
G is for Grammer
Good morning, (insert your child’s name). It’s another exciting day in this big, beautiful world of ours. By the way, do you know how special you are? Gasp, you don’t? Well, why don’t we sing Red Grammer’s “The ABC’s of You” to try and remind us of all the ways you’re super duper great! Shall…
Ruminations
Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold. Through Love all dregs will turn to purest wine, Through Love all pain will turn to medicine. Through Love the dead will all become alive. Through Love the king will turn into a slave! Rumi Word. If…
Drug Rep Romance
OPENING THE WARRIOR’S WAY. The debut of Korean writer/director Sngmoo Lee looks like a stylized Asian samurai movie crossed with a spaghetti western. South Korean superstar Jang Dong-gun stars as Yang, a master swordsman who refuses a crucial order to kill a baby who is the last survivor of a rival clan. Yang flees to…
Entertain Us
Casey Neill has come a long way since releasing his first album, Riffraff, 15 years ago. Back then the Evergreen grad was a folky politi-punk, railing against corporations and touring up and down the coast with his guitar doing Earth First! benefits and the like. “Musically Riffraff sort of split the difference between the political punk…
Cotton Suit Going to Trial
Over three years after the violent altercation with police and others that landed Martin Cotton II in Humboldt County Jail, where he died of head injuries, a lawsuit brought by his relatives is nearing trial in Oakland federal court. The suit, which was brought by Cotton’s daughter and his father, charges that officers with the…
