Cover Story
End of Life Options
If Elizabeth Wallner’s life was reduced to a statistic, it might be one of these. She’s among the 30 percent of US adults who serve as a primary caregiver (for her parents); she’s one of the nearly 12 million single parents in the United States (raising her son); and she’s included in the 10 percent…
Controversial “I Like Eureka” Logo Given New Heart
Live music? Bounce houses? Balloons? Face painting? Emergency management training? Sounds like quite a time at next month’s Neighborhood Watch Block Party! But, wait, what’s that in the far right corner of this jam-packed flyer? Yes, it’s the latest iteration of the “I Like Eureka” campaign, now tinted a badge-proud blue and festooned with a…
Three Skilled Nursing Facilities May Close
Rockport Healthcare Services, the management company for five of Humboldt County’s six skilled nursing facilities, announced today that they have filed relocation notices for three sites: Pacific, Seaview, and Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Centers. The relocation notices, filed with the California Department of Public Health, are the first step in closing these facilities, which collectively contain…
Murder Arrest Made in 2015 Garberville Beating Death
More than a year since a Georgia man died after being severely beaten in Garberville, police have arrested someone for his murder. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office announced today that Raymond Earl Preschern was extradited from Oregon on a warrant for the murder of Khanh Lam and booked into the local jail on Aug. 19.…
Huffman’s Flag Ban Rises from the Ashes
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs announced yesterday that it will ban the flying of Confederate flags in national cemeteries. The announcement comes exactly two months after House Republicans voted to remove legislation sponsored by Representative Jared Huffman that would accomplish similar a similar end from a VA appropriations bill. The new policy set forth by…
SoHum Homicide Victim Identified
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed the identity of the victim of last week’s homicide as 52-year old Stephanie Faye Gawboy of Redway. Gawboy’s identity has been public knowledge from almost the date of her death, as an employee of KMUD radio apparently found her body then gave an interview on air about the…
Salmon(less) Festival
For the first time in the event’s history, the Yurok Tribe made a difficult decision to not have the traditional salmon lunch, cooked in the traditional way over an open fire, at this year’s 54th annual Klamath Salmon Festival on Saturday, Aug. 20. Instead, the large crowd that attended had to make do with food…
Into and Out of the Theater Business
Looking to manage a marquee? Here’s your chance. The Arcata Theatre Lounge is on the market for a cool $1.85 million via Ming Tree Realtors. The revamped Art Deco venue has been listed for a week and includes shops rented by Bluegrass Barber and Smug’s pizza. Over the phone last week, Lara Cox, who owns…
‘Friendly City’ Taking Names for City Manager
The city of Fortuna is recruiting candidates to replace outgoing City Manager Regan Candelario, who is returning to his Bay Area roots to take the same position in Novato. The move comes almost exactly three years after he was hired in Fortuna, which is accepting city manager applications until Sept. 22. With his new job,…
Registration Deadlines Loom for Marijuana Farmers
Humboldt County marijuana farmer’s train to legitimacy is preparing to leave the station. There are a couple of deadlines looming for marijuana growers throughout the county who want to go legit. Most imminently, Tuesday is the last day for people or businesses to register existing medical cannabis cultivation sites with the county. This is a necessary…
UPDATED: Bay Billboards No More
UPDATE: The Humboldt County Association of Governments just issued a press release noting that removal of the 10 billboards won’t just be good for scenery enthusiasts, but also for the Humboldt Bay Trail and the Safety Corridor Improvement Project. See the press release copied below, along with a billboard map. PREVIOUSLY: Motorists on the Safety…
Sheriff Launches SoHum Homicide Probes
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has launched a homicide investigation after deputies found a 52-year-old woman dead of a gunshot wound in a Redway home. Details are scant, but the sheriff’s office was called at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday to a call of a possible suicide in the 100 block of Redway Drive. But when a…
Election Council Seat Roundup
With the dust settled after Wednesday’s filing deadline, local city council races have solidified. There was some movement — with one Eureka candidate, Allen McCloskey, bowing out due to health reasons and someone stepping in to take his place on the ballot — at the 11th hour, and it seems most cities will have at…
4th UPDATE: Suspect I.D.’d in McKinleyville Standoff
David Alan Fulton, 59, had a history of mental health issues and a collection of BB guns, according to friends who showed up to check on him during yesterday’s standoff at an apartment complex on Sutter Road in McKinleyville. The friends, according to Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey, had no idea that it was Fulton…
Not Wasting all that Sun
Editor: Yes, Charlie, as news director, I remember interviewing you about off-grid solar power (Mailbox, Aug. 11). I only wish that YOU remembered that not only am I off grid with an alternative energy solar system, but that you actually helped me over many years when I would come in needing parts/supplies or new panels…
Decennial Villanelle
Every ten years I write one. Sometimes playfully, like a crossword, antic — Maybe this time the right touch, the light one. I tried Optics — Oh, I thought I was the bright one! Even brought up Spinoza — perhaps too pedantic — Every ten years I write one. Now, consciously fashioning lines, as might…
Putting Heads Together for Housing First
It’s Thursday, Aug. 11, moving day, and the Eureka Police Department is busy. Every morning at around 6:30, several officers visit the parking lot where homeless people are allowed to sleep between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. The “designated temporary overnight sleeping areas,” as city employees call them — the word “camps” is strictly verboten…
Hot August Nights
There are two Neils near and dear to my musical heart. The first I would hear cranking out of my father’s car when my sister and I were small. I have vague memories of him singing along to certain songs loudly, which implied that these were damn fine songs. The second Neil I didn’t really…
Humboldt on Tap
Just when I’m purring along in no-place-could-be-better-than-Humboldt-mode, some other locale saunters by, its gaze smoldering over a frothy beer glass, and my heart wobbles. This time it’s Oregon. Sweet, seductive Oregon, which made Saccharomyces cerevisiae the official state microbe. To even have a state microbe is geekily wonderful. To choose yeast, the microbe that makes…
Farm to Flame
California’s Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act regulates marijuana plants more like painkillers than agriculture, requiring every plant in the state to have a unique identification number tagged to it. New laws require a “track and trace” system to monitor all plant material using these IDs, from the ground to final sale, by 2018. Now,…
Growing Pains
The backlash came fast and fierce. “Get ready for some hate mail,” warned one Facebook commenter about 30 minutes after the post went live. Within hours, the boycott calls began. On Aug. 10, the Lost Coast Outpost posted to its news site the full list of marijuana growers and manufacturers who have taken steps to…
Marley’s Ghosts
Dare we consider a festival under the banner of visual art? Reader, in 2016, I think we must. This week let’s consider the notable sights from last week’s Reggae on the River festival. This year the festival was graced with an officially designated “Art Cave.” The compositions within its precincts were consumed by tightly rendered,…
Correction
The cover story, “Best of Humboldt,” in the Aug. 11, 2016 edition of the North Coast Journal contained several errors. Ken Luu and Henry Krüger’s names were misspelled, and Hole in the Wall’s Arcata location, 590 G St., should have been included under the “Best Sandwich” category. The Journal regrets the errors.
Let’s be Frank
Reviews SAUSAGE PARTY. One could make an argument that Sausage Party is exactly the sort of summer movie the world needs at a time like this. A jaunt down to the local cinema is meant as a refuge from the uncertain, shady funk of the world at large, and that outside world has been a…
Horny Buggers
Three Critters on a River Anyone who has spent much time poking around streams and rivers has encountered the wondrous “Whirligig Beetle.” Shiny black ovals a bit more than a quarter of an inch long, they are a most remarkable animal. Easily seen as they pirouette wildly, skimming along the surface of ponds and slow…
‘Long Shattered’
Editor: Well written article Ms. Stansberry (“The Death of Jeannie Newstrom,” Aug. 4). I licensed and monitored Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly in Humboldt County for Community Care Licensing during the period 1989 through 1996 and other facility types until 1999, whereupon I transferred to Sacramento to work in various capacities within CCL’s statewide…
