Cover Story
Fight at the Museum
Last Dec. 21, Pam Service, director/curator of the Clarke Historical Museum since 2000, arrived at work a little after 9 a.m., ready to finish the Harper Motors exhibit she’d been preparing for the local car dealership’s 100th anniversary in early 2012. Lonnie Wellman, president of the museum’s board of directors, was waiting for her. The…
Cannery Dreams in Weitchpec
A Yurok family plans to build a cannery in Weitchpec, near the confluence of the Klamath and Trinity rivers, and has been accepting pledges at Kickstarter to get the venture going. Tom and Morneen Willson, who own Spey-gee Point Resort and Guide Services, co-founded The Source Food Company late last year with Billee Willson, who…
CR Board Names New College President
College of the Redwoods’ Board of Trustees has made its selection from the three finalists named last month: Kathryn G. Lehner, who has been serving as the president/superintendent of Mendocino College since 2005. Here’s the press release: The College of the Redwoods Board of Trustees announced on Wednesday, March 14, that it has offered the…
Time to Sharpen Your eTrek Sticks
The Guv has proposed closing 70 state parks to ease the budget burden a bit, and several are in our area — including Fort Humboldt and Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, through which the Van Duzen River flows. Some of these parks have been saved from closure by private and government entities; most have not.…
Popular Mechanics gets Kinetic
Popular Mechanics, the magazine for wrench-wielding nerds, features a story this week on our very own mega-exaltation of artsy mechanical nerdity: the Kinetic sculpture race (in case you needed telling). And, somewhat self-consciously and perhaps in need of explaining his attention to this costumed, joyous absurdity, author James Vlahos asks: “Why would people spend hundreds…
Environmental Group Sues Bayshore Mall
Northern California River Watch, an environmental group based in Petaluma, is suing the Bayshore Mall and its previous corporate owners, General Growth Properties, for failing to restore five acres of wetlands. The nonprofit alleges that GGP failed to comply with a requirement in the Coastal Development Permit it was issued way back in 1985. According…
Woman Tortured, Molested During Home-Invasion Robbery
Note: This post has been altered from an earlier version: Portions of the press release have been deleted to protect the victim’s identity. From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office: On 03-12-2012, approximately 10:00 a.m. the Fortuna Police Department was notified of a Home Invasion Robbery which just occurred on Drake Hill Road in Fortuna. The…
Kala Kenyatte is Gone
Kala Kenyatte, a big man, and a fixture on the Humboldt music scene, died Thursday morning at around 3 a.m. at Mad River Hospital due to renal and congestive heart failure, the result of ongoing health problems related to diabetes. Born George Allen Dixon on Oct. 16, 1946 in Westchester, Virginia, Kala was active in…
Afternoon Rowdiness on Harrison Ends in Marijuana Arrest
Press release from the Eureka Police Department: On 3/07/12, at about 2:50 PM, investigators with the Eureka Police Department’s Problem Oriented Policing Unit (POP) went to a residence on the 1900 block of Harrison Ave. in response to neighbor complaints concerning loud music, parties, and suspected drug activity there. Detectives contacted resident Brandon James Phelps…
Come Get Cash!
Ervin McCluskey and Ervin McCluskey Jr. — Humboldt County is looking for you. And it wants to give you $18,837.14. That’s because your one-time property at 1286 Howard St. near Oceanview Cemetery in Eureka sold at a county tax auction back in October, and that’s how much money was left over after fees and back…
Searching for Utopia: The History of An Idea
When I saw this book displayed at Northtown Books, it reminded me that while the once promising field of future studies has waned, there’s a curious new interest in utopia studies. In this era of dire predictions and popular fictions of apocalyptic futures it seems counterintuitive, but it is precisely in dark times that utopian…
Doo-Doo? Don’t
Editor: Regarding the March 1 cartoon entitled “Sightseeing” by Joel Mielke, it seems to me that he has an issue with Eureka. Why does he not use his big boy words and express himself instead of “crapping” on our city? Eda Bachrach, Eureka
Think of the Children, Conquer Your Fears
All right, Wimpy Humboldtians, listen up! Do you suffer from any/all of the following?: • ac·ro·pho·bi·a [ak-ruh-foh-bee-uh] noun. A pathological fear of heights. • ag·o·ra·pho·bi·a [ag-er-uh-foh-bee-uh] noun. An abnormal fear of being in crowds, public places. • hy·dro·pho·bi·a [hahy-druh-foh-bee-uh] noun. An abnormal or unnatural dread of water. • chiem·a·to·pho·bi·a [kem-ah-to-foh-bee-uh] noun. A fear of coldness, being cold.…
The Life and Times of Judi Bari
As the film opens, the camera pans through a bucolic redwood forest, tilting up into the branches. Bird sounds and new age music on the soundtrack are interrupted by a Bay Area TV news report announcing, “A car bomb explosion sends two members of the activist group Earth First! to the hospital. And the question…
Seuss Betrayed
THE LORAX is one of Dr. Seuss’ best. Like everything he published, it’s clever and fun to look at, but it stands apart for the strength and resonance of its themes. It’s a fable about conservation, the risks inherent in the profit motive, and the importance of each of us sticking up for what’s right.…
Dirty Reggae
A long time ago, when I was first discovering reggae music, I picked up a three record compilation called The Trojan Story. Produced in the early ‘70s, it was a look back for the British label starting with the ska era, moving through rocksteady and ending with the dawn of reggae, with the main focus…
‘Going’ Great
‘Going’ Great Editor: I just read “Going Once” (March 1). Congratulations. What excellent, multi-layered journalism, so badly needed! Having a background in public-interest journalism and corporate accountability work, I greatly appreciate your thoughtful approach to the difficult issue of home foreclosures. Routine news stories — and the standard rhetoric from politicians — fail to…
Straighten Up, Occupy
Editor: I am enthusiastically in support of the Occupy Movement (“Concrete Activists,” Feb. 16). Occupy Wall Street has fundamentally shifted the nature of public policy discourse. Finally, the focus is on the super rich who are killing the poor and devastating the middle class. I have become increasingly disturbed by the tactics of Occupy Eureka.…
Oxymorons Part Two
Oxymorons Part Two
Road Trippin’
Andrew foolishly challenges Will to get involved in his community.
Mischief & Mayhem
In a 2008 New York Times piece, the maverick guitarist Bill Frisell praised the musicianship of violinist Jenny Scheinman, commenting, “She can play out or free or whatever, but you always hear that center, that melody thing, which is so important.” It’s evident when listening to Scheinman’s work in various collaborations, including numerous projects with…
Herbs. Now.
Buying herbs at the grocery store is a sign of defeat. Not defeat, even, because defeat would suggest that you tried and failed. It’s more like inertia. Because really, if you can’t grow a few herbs, you have just given up on having any kind of interaction with the plant kingdom or the parcel of…
All the trees have undressed
Standing on the hillside, across the highway from…
Black Swans and Doomed Turkeys
When members of an expedition led by Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh discovered black swans in Western Australia in 1697, they ruined a perfectly good idiom that had been around for over a thousand years. Roman poet Juvenal was probably responsible for the expression that translated into medieval English as “impossible as a black swan.”…
The Wildness of Natural Process
There is something appealing about doing things the way they’ve been done for centuries — sailing, leavening bread, celestial navigation — they offer us a connection to the past, contact with tradition. They help us to place ourselves, to feel part of a continuum. There is also something inexplicably attractive about activities that incorporate primary…
