City of Eureka Halts Enforcement on New Camping Ordinance
The city of Eureka has halted enforcement on a camping ordinance that was set to take effect tonight at midnight according to a release by the Legal Services of Northern California and Disability Rights California. The Eureka City Council passed the ordinance on Nov. 17 prohibiting involuntary camping in most parts of Eureka including business districts and…
Public Health Confirms 53 New COVID-19 Cases and Two Deaths
Humboldt County Public Health confirmed 53 new COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths today, both residents of Granada Hills Rehabilitation and Wellness Center. Public Health Officer Ian Hoffman is urging residents to avoid gatherings for New Year’s Eve as the county has seen the impacts of Thanksgiving get-togethers and has yet to see the impact…
Yurok Tribe Purchases 40-Acre Land for Food Security Farm
With the help of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding, the Yurok Tribe has purchased 40-acres of agricultural land to create a food security farm filled with healthy fruits and vegetables. “The COVID-19 crisis illuminated a very real potential for food shortages in our rural region. We purchased this property to make the…
SF Chronicle: California Native American Tribe Has Been Burning Forests for 10,000 Years. What Can We Learn From Them?
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting a story about the Karuk Tribe’s ancestral tradition of using prescribed burning techniques to fight off wildfires. The article follows Leeon Hillman, a member of the Karuk Tribe who “believes preventive burning would have thinned undergrowth and slowed the spread of fire enough for firefighters to be able to…
Health Officials Concerned Over Humboldt’s New COVID Ranking
Local health officials are expressing concern after the state moved Humboldt County out of the “widespread” COVID-19 risk tier today for the first time in four weeks, in what was described as a “surprise decision” as cases here continue to surge. With the move, Humboldt joined Mariposa and Alpine counties in the “substantial” risk zone,…
New Calf on the Farm
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office introduced one of the new additions at its SWAP farm via Facebook this week, asking for suggestions on what to name the little one. The farm, located in Fortuna, provides low-risk offenders with an opportunity to help care for the animals and the property while staying out of the jail.…
County SBRR Grant Program Allocated $1.8 million, Finalizing Another $2 Million
Within the last four months, Humboldt County’s Small Business Restart and Recovery (SBRR) grant program has allocated $1.8 million in grant funding for local businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the release, county staff is working to finalize another $2 million in additional funding for more local businesses and non-profits.…
County Calls ‘Red Tier’ COVID Status a ‘Surprise Decision’
Humboldt County Public Health announced today that it has confirmed 31 new COVID-19 cases. No new deaths or hospitalizations were reported. However, the county’s Joint Information Center’s release noted the “surprise decision” by the state to move Humboldt out of the most restrictive purple, or “widespread” COVID risk tier and into the “substantial” ranking, making…
Humboldt Lowered to ‘Substantial’ COVID Risk Tier
Humboldt County was moved out of the state’s “widespread” COVID-19 risk tier today for the first time in four weeks, joining Mariposa and Alpine counties in the “substantial” risk zone, while only Sierra County ranks as “moderate” and the rest of the state remains in the “purple zone.” Under the new tier, some restrictions are…
EPD POP Detains 14 People at Eureka Residence This Morning
This morning Eureka’s Problem Oriented Policing (POP) team showed up again at the residence of 204 West Hawthorne Street which has a history of law enforcement raids for drugs and in response to neighbor’s complaints. This morning, a large contingent of officers arrived and detained a number of people who were in the home. “POP…
Two Additional COVID Deaths Reported Today
Humboldt County Public Health announced today that it has confirmed 64 new COVID-19 cases since Saturday. It also reported two more deaths, both residents of Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center. One was in their 80s and the other in their 90s. A total of 71 residents and 28 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at…
December’s ‘Cold Full Moon’ of 2020
The last full moon of 2020 — known by a host of descriptive names — will officially debut in the sky on Tuesday. But, according to NASA, the moon will play a starring role for not just one night but three, appearing to be full Monday evening through to Thursday morning. Called the Cold Moon,…
Caltrans Charts Ambitious $155M Plan for Eureka’s Broadway
Broadway has long been an integral yet neglected part of Eureka. As a road that serves both as a state highway and as a city “Main Street,” it fills neither role satisfactorily. Half of all automobile accidents in Eureka happen on Broadway. This 3-mile stretch of road, which serves 35,000 vehicles daily, has been the…
Christmas Storm Brought Significant Rainfall
The storm that hit northwest California on Dec. 25-26 delivered a healthy wallop of rain to the region with some areas seeing up to 4 inches of precipitation. While most areas received between half an inch to an inch and a half, Honeydew received almost 4 inches of rain. Eureka (at Woodley Island) saw 0.71 inches, …
NWS Issues Sneaker Wave Warning
A word of caution to beachgoers: the North Coast could experience sneaker waves starting Tuesday afternoon. According to the Eureka office of the National Weather Service, “A long-period west to northwest swell will bring a threat for sneaker waves to area beaches starting Tuesday afternoon. Periods of smaller waves will be accompanied by sudden larger waves…
NCJ Preview: Flash Fiction and Local Delivery
It’s time for the NCJ Flash Fiction Issue! One of our judges, Eureka Poet Laureate David Holper, joins us to talk about reading and ranking the hundreds of 99-word stories submitted by readers. And we’ll talk about how the local business USVetsDeliver is trying to make over the delivery service model. Hit subscribe for weekly…
County’s 18th COVID-19 Related Death, 45 New Positive Cases Confirmed
Humboldt County Public Health announced today that it has confirmed 45 new COVID-19 cases since Wednesday, bringing the week’s total to 197. It also reported one death, that of a resident of Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center who was in their 90s. Last week saw 156 cases, which seemed like a brief respite from the…
Guy Fieri’s Pandemic Relief Pays Off
If the last nine months haven’t left your memory a slice of melted Swiss cheese, you may recall Ferndale’s own Guy Fieri has been helping the National Restaurant Association raise cash for hospitality workers who’ve been out of work due to COVID-19. (He also took part in a remote nacho throwdown fundraiser with Bill Murray…
Metal Crab on the Waterfront
You may have driven through Eureka and spotted this metal marvel where it lives behind a chain-link fence, dreaming of adventures past and future in the outer world. I have. What is it? Does it move? I wanted to photograph it the moment I saw it. And now that I have, I want to again.…
The Mouse Who Missed Christmas
(Just to prove I’m not a complete Humbug; best read aloud to a young one) Mr. Whiskers tentatively Poked out his snout Round the sofa leg Whiskers quivering Before, there’d been a thumping and Much clumping from up above He’d been asleep, not stirring When suddenly disturbed A whoosh of soot A loud landing “Achoo!”…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your capacity for pioneering feats and impressive accomplishments will be at a peak in 2021. So you could become the best human ever at balancing a ladder on your chin or typing with your nose or running long-distance while holding an egg on a spoon with your mouth. But I’d prefer…
‘This is Crunch Time’
In a draft of a rare joint statement, the Rural Association of Northern California Health Officers likens the current state of COVID-19 to a wildfire engulfing the entire region and urges residents to redouble efforts to curb the virus’ spread, warning if they wait for further state restrictions it may be too late. While the…
28 Days Later
As local case numbers continued to soar, Humboldt County Public Health, with much hope and fanfare, distributed the first local doses of the new Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine last week in what officials predict will begin a steady, if slow, march out of this pandemic. But many questions about the vaccine and how it will be…
Flash Fiction 2020
Once again, our readers are the writers in the annual contest of narrative brevity judged by a team of story lovers: Booklegger owners Jennifer McFadden and Nancy Short, retired children’s librarian JoAnn Bauer, Eureka Poet Laureate and College of the Redwoods professor David Holper, and myself. The influence of the pandemic is visible here and…
Delivering for Restaurants and Drivers
Jim Richards is going to have to chat later. He’s pulled off the road coming from Arcata Pizza and Deli to King Salmon so we can talk, but another call comes in from the USVetsDeliver dispatcher (who’s also his girlfriend). Once we hang up, he’s off to take another job. The service area is McKinleyville,…
Something Old Something New
It’s the darkest month in what will likely be remembered as an extremely dark year, and most of us are cloistered away from our friends, music and culture. So in the spirit of finding some communal joy in our secluded cells, here are a couple of local new releases you can enjoy with even limited…
Cinder Elta
After breakfast at the Blue Room on the outskirts of Ferndale, my dad was taking me to see a group of turtles his friend Menard Hendrickson had found in a ditch off Frog Alley. I was a little kid but I remember the story my dad told me on the way about Menard’s wife, Elta.…
Steelhead Season Yet to Take Off
The transition to steelhead season is taking a bit longer than we had hoped. To date, steelhead fishing has yet to really take off on popular rivers like the Smith and Chetco. The lower Eel also has yet to see big numbers of steelhead. The lone bright spot has been the Mad River. It’s probably…
The Grudge Boat
LET THEM ALL TALK. It certainly wasn’t the biggest (or worst) news of the year but the recent announcement by Warner Bros. that the studio would be releasing its entire 2021 slate simultaneously in theaters and on the HBOMax streaming platform has produced no small amount of hand-wringing and outcry. Prominent directors — including Christopher…
Find the Exit
Imagine you’re driving down an unfamiliar country highway at night, the kind lined with forests and hillsides and without cell service, as you notice your fuel gauge ticking down. Do you wait until the “get fuel” light ticks on before deciding to pull off at the next gas station? Better to gas up at the…
For F’s Sake
Editor: That’s one F-ing cover on the Dec. 17 issue (“Fatigue, Fear and Frustration”). Dave Rosso, Eureka Related Stories
‘The Spirit of Christmas’
Editor: Just want to give a shout out to the anonymous gentleman (duh, he was wearing a mask) who came to my aid at Eureka Natural Foods last week. I, realizing I had misplaced my debit card, was having a moment when he stepped up and covered my purchase with cash. He declined afterward to…
Clarification
The story headlined in “Fatigue, Fear and Frustration” in the Dec. 17, 2020 issue of the North Coast Journal contained inaccurate information about COVID-19 care at St. Joseph Hospital. According hospital spokesperson Christian Hill, hospital care providers — while trained to follow strict personal protective equipment protocols — do provide care for both COVID-19 patients…
