Cover Story
Flash Fiction 2023
Ninety-nine words don’t sound like enough to draw you in, take you on a narrative trip, change your perspective or sketch a biography, but they can be. Entries in the Journal’s annual Flash Fiction Contest always run the gamut: stick-ups, budding romances, mysteries, reunions and dystopian futures populated by killers and ghosts, scientists and thieves.…
Juanda Lee DeShazer: 1923-2020
After many years living in Humboldt County, Juanda Lee DeShazer’s cremated remains were interred at Hardy Oak Cemetery, near McLouth, Kansas, on June 8, 2023. This date marked the third anniversary of her death, in the 100th year following her birth. Juanda’s grave is beside that of her cherished husband, Frank Kimball Scott, and surrounded…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Dec. 7
Jeff Landen, singer, guitarist, and songwriter known locally as a member of the Bayou Swamis, returns to the Logger Bar tonight at 7 p.m. for a free solo set. Expect a lively mix of covers and originals all sung and played quite well.
EPD Chief Jarvis Retiring, Assistant Chief Stephens to Take Over
Eureka Police Department Chief Todd Jarvis is retiring effective Jan. 4, according to an announcement today from the city, with Assistant Chief Brian Stephens slated to step into the role following this departure. Jarvis, whose retirement was announced at Tuesday’s Eureka City Council meeting, is leaving almost exactly two years to the day he stepped…
Short Stories, Police Shooting, Pelican Bay and a Potluck
Flash Fiction is back! This year’s crop of stories is on stands now. We’ll also share what we know about the most recent police shooting in our area, as well as college classes available to inmates at Pelican Bay. Finally, we’re talking about the Trans Power Potluck and what it means to the community and…
HCSO to Allow Family of Inmate to Donate Organs
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office today stated that it will allow the family of an inmate who suffered “non-survivable” injuries in an apparent suicide attempt at the jail on Nov. 17 to follow his wishes to have his organs donated. The Lost Coast Outpost reported earlier this week that the family of Eric Matilton, 38,…
EPD Identifies 31 Year Old Shot by Officers as Cutten Man
The Eureka Police Department has identified the man killed by officers in a shooting Sunday as Matthew Robert Williams, 31, of Cutten. EPD issued a press release this afternoon, offering a bit more detail on the shooting that followed a traffic stop at about 9:35 a.m. Sunday, leaving Williams dead and two officers on administrative…
Noni, Tule Get Out and About at the Zoo
Sequoia Park Zoo’s bears — Noni and Tule — are branching out into a larger area of their habitat at the facility, which is designed to mimic the natural environment with a waterfall, log structures and even more trees to climb. Tule — a boy —and Noni — a girl — were rescued separately as…
‘The Worst Culprits’
Editor: Dear Mr. Evans, I always enjoy your NCJ column (Field Notes), it’s one of the first things I read. Your recent piece on light pollution is timely and significant (“Light Pollution,” Nov. 23). I have lived in Humboldt County since 1970 and on Tuluwat Island (aka Gunther Island or Indian Island) since 1974, where…
‘Cowardly’
Editor: Arcata can be so much better than it thinks it is. This has been my mantra for many years now about the small, rural college town where I live. The history of Arcata in the last half of the 20th century and the early years of this current century have seen an evolution of progressive ideas…
Peter and the Starcatcher Shines at FRT
I wish more than a handful of people could have seen Jessie Gelormino as one of the best Cosettes I’ve had the pleasure to witness in Les Misérables. Her performance was inspiring, professional and sweet, but only performed in a rehearsal for understudies (as she was) to practice main roles should an actor not be able to…
‘Game Changer’
When the spring semester begins at Cal Poly Humboldt, a group of newly enrolled students in the university’s Department of Communication will be taking their seats. But instead of sitting in a classroom at the Arcata campus nestled in the redwoods, they’ll be 85 miles north, behind the walls of Pelican Bay State Prison in…
Big Beat Bonanza
It occurred to me during this year’s Best of Humboldt voteing that I hadn’t been putting enough thought into the trending directions of our local music scene. Blame it on the pandemic’s flattening effect, as well as a year of distractions in my private life, most of them gloomy and bad. It seems silly in…
The Power of the Trans Power Potluck
The evening before Thanksgiving, the Labor Temple on Eureka’s E Street is mostly dark from the street. It’s not clear this is the right place until Sister Gaia T steps into the light in the hallway. “Welcome!” she calls, waving a willowy arm. She’s without her zinc white “sister-face” makeup and regalia, instead wearing a…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive
Eureka Main Street presents First Saturday Night Arts Alive Dec. 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. Galleries, museums, theaters, bars and restaurants are open late for your enjoyment. 4TH STREET MERCANTILE 215 Fourth St. Four artists. 707 BAR 200 First St. Drink specials. Open until 2 a.m. ART CENTER FRAME SHOP 616 Second St. Jimmy…
Obituary‘s Black Heart
OBITUARY. There should be something like a Scoville scale for dark humor, gradations of blackness that range from, say, a No. 2 pencil to the underwing of a raven to the lightless ocean floor to the imagined void of a black hole. Like peppers, not all of these give pleasure to all. And to taste…
‘Beautiful and Inspiring’
Editor: What a beautiful and inspiring article by Linda Stansberry about surviving overwhelming grief (“Lobster Girl Finds the Beat,” Nov. 9). There is life after grief. Kathryn Tarbell, Ferndale Related Stories
‘Old News’
Editor: I attended the Nov. 14 presentation of Measure A at the Cal Poly Humboldt emeritus faculty meeting at Baywood (NCJ Daily, Nov. 16). The presentation included proponents of Measure A, plus the executive director of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance and Planning Commissioner Noah Levy presenting views of how Measure A would affect the county. Measure…
