‘Ground Zero’
Coastal Commission blasts Caltrans for ‘wholly insufficient’ planning for sea level rise, approves safety corridor plan
Cover Story
‘Ground Zero:’ Coastal Commission Approves Safety Corridor Project, Worries Sea Level Rise May Leave it Under Water
While Caltrans’ project on the 6-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101 that connects Eureka and Arcata is aimed at improving safety for motorists, the agency got an earful Aug. 7 from California Coastal Commissioners who felt it is ignoring a potentially far more dangerous threat: sea level rise. “This is ground zero,” said Chair Dayna…
Eureka’s Poet Laureate David Holper
Congratulations, Eureka, you have your first poet laureate. David Holper, a 61-year-old professor of English at College of the Redwoods and brave judge of the NCJ annual Flash Fiction Contest, got word of his selection this week and a press release from the city is expected soon. Holper is a graduate of the University of…
Today’s Temps Another One for the Record Books
Well, this summer’s record list just got a little bit longer today, with the National Weather Service reporting that the temperature at the Woodley Island office hit 78 degrees just after 1 p.m. today, taking away another title. So far this summer, the coast has broken a few records, including the June 11 heatwave where…
North Coast Night Lights: Metal Beast and Stardust Skies
Late one night along a dirt road in the hills in the middle of nowhere in southern Humboldt County, California, a couple of guys rendezvoused to photograph an old metal beast crouching in the dirt beneath the stardust skies of the cosmic realm through which we float, as a species almost completely unaware of the…
Local Officials Warn Against Cannabis Use During Pregnancy
Officials from the local group Perinatal Substance Use Disorder Project presented research on the risks of cannabis use during pregnancy to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The group — which started meeting in 2016 to examine the high rates of perinatal substance use in the county — informed the board that research…
Photos from the 57th Klamath Salmon Festival
Given the last few years of wildfire smoke-filled skies, it was a relief for a large crowd of attendees to only smell smoke from the traditional salmon fire pit at the 57th annual Klamath Salmon Festival on Saturday, Aug. 17. This year’s theme was “Skue’n ‘Owook, Can’t Wait for Tomorrow,” which linked Yurok Tribe plans…
‘The Bay is Back in Business’ After Dredging
The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Conservation and Recreation District announced today that shipping restrictions have been lifted after roughly 1.1 million cubic yards of sediment were removed from the Humboldt Bay entrance channel. During the winter, “significant sediment deposits” accumulated near buoy No. 9, which caused “extremely dangerous shoaling conditions” and the closure of Humboldt Bay…
Newsom Signs Landmark Police Use-of-Force Bill
California will soon have a tougher new legal standard for the use of deadly force by police, under legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed today that was inspired by last year’s fatal shooting of a young, unarmed man in Sacramento. Newsom signed the legislation amid unusual fanfare, convening numerous legislators, family members of people who have…
UPDATE: Missing Humboldt Hiker Found Dead After Massive Search Effort
A massive search effort for a missing hiker ended today after rescuers recovered his body in a remote wilderness area near Mirror Lake in the Trinity Alps. According to the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office, the body of Daniel Komins, an EMT and volunteer with Blue Lake Fire, was located after a California Highway Patrol helicopter crew…
HumBug: Damsels vs. Dragons
At a party I was recently asked the difference between damselflies and dragonflies. Although close relatives (order odonata) that live very similar lives, there are some differences. Both groups spend the majority of their lives as aquatic larvae breathing water. They are all hunters but with varying specialties. Some hide in the detritus in the…
Piping Up: Photos from the Highland Games
Blue Lake’s Perigot Park was awash in tartan and the music of bagpipes on Sunday during the Highland Games. Competitors brought the hammer down — or rather up — throwing 12-pound hammers and cabers (basically logs, folks) for distance. Attendees got down to Celtic rock from Tempest and got sentimental to pipes and drums from the…
Dimming Hopes
Editor: As each month passes, my hopes dim for ever having an NPR station with the same relevance to the local community that we had in KHSU prior to April of this year (“HSU Enters Interim Agreement to Farm Out KHSU Management,” posted online Aug. 9). The latest plan to transmit programming from Capital Public…
‘Lipstick on a Pig’
Editor: John Andersen’s attempt to put lipstick on a pig is certainly from the ” PALCO playbook” (“Come See for Yourself,” Aug. 1) The log decks are sky high and the word is Humbodt Redwood Co. is still refusing logs from smaller operators in an attempt to impact market prices. We haven’t seen forest liquidation like this…
‘A Must’
Editor: I am a Humboldt County native raised here and am now raising my children here. I have traveled to Sacramento, Washington, D.C., Southern California, Mexico, etc. for tours and meetings that have to do with resource policy and legislation. Humboldt’s proposed wind project is a must (“Why I Support Terra-Gen’s Wind Project,” June 27,…
Clarification
It his come to the Journal’s attention that some information contained in our Aug. 1, 2019, story headlined “The Grove” was inaccurate. Although the Journal reported the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury’s findings accurately, the grand jury report itself contained a pair of errors due to the grand jury’s misconstruing data regarding homeless and housing…
Correction
A story in the Aug. 8, 2019 edition of the Journal headlined “The Painting on the Wall” misidentified the location of Duane Flatmo’s mural. It is on the wall of the Vision Center. The Journal regrets the error.
Trinidad Rancheria Hotel Project Gets Conditional OK, Off Ramp Moving Forward
The California Coastal Commission went against the recommendation of its staff Aug. 8 and gave the Trinidad Rancheria the go-ahead — or a “conditional concurrence” — to build a five-story hotel on its property off Scenic Drive south of the city. This means that the Coastal Commission, which is tasked by law with protecting the…
Friendly City Police Contract Negotiations Get Feisty
The city of Fortuna is in the process of finalizing a new contract with its police union that appears to be leaving no one happy. At the Fortuna City Council’s Aug. 5 meeting, City Manager Merrit Perry explained that the city simply wasn’t able to meet the Fortuna Police Employees Association’s salary requests amid rising…
Beautiful Music in a Cruel World
Last week was marked by two high-profile deaths. The tragic suicide of troubled songwriter, poet and Silver Jews frontman David Berman, and the there’s-no-fucking-way-that-I-will-ever-believe-that-was-a-suicide demise of professional scumbag and alleged child pimp Jeffrey Epstein. And though both of these events happened in New York City, they are worlds apart: The latter has me watching with…
Doggerel
(For Shaggy) He wasn’t big and he wasn’t small. He lived to eat and to chase his ball. His raison d’etre: Fun, fun fun. His single speed was run, run, run. He loved to laugh in his doggish way. To lick my bowl and to have his say. Past fifty years he’s been away and…
Sun, Moonand Fig
It’s the still midsummer air that reminds me to check on the figs. With their deep green leaves shading them, figs are having the coolest, quietest summer of anyone. I remember many years ago my siblings and I didn’t care for them due to their odd looking insides (the flesh and seeds of the cut…
Graphene:The Future ofDesalination?
“Water, water everywhere/Nor any drop to drink.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ancient mariner was plagued by the same predicament as many people today who live near the ocean: They’re short of fresh water and unable to drink from our planet’s salty oceans. The problem is seawater is about 3.5 percent salt by weight but our kidneys…
A Word about the ‘Threat’ of White Supremacy
In the wake of the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, by a white supremacist gunman who left a violent, racist manifesto before he murdered 22 people, Fox News host Tucker Carlson went on air and declared the threat of white supremacists “a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): How did sound technicians create the signature roar of the fictional monster Godzilla? They slathered pine-tar resin on a leather glove and stroked it against the strings of a double bass. How about the famous howl of the fictional character Tarzan? Sonic artists blended a hyena’s screech played backwards, a dog’s…
Comforting Fictions
Review THE FAREWELL. Lulu Wang’s The Farewell opens on a phone call between Billi (Awkwafina) in New York and her grandmother Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) in China. It’s a charming, relatable exchange with Nai Nai warning her granddaughter about the dangers she’s heard of in the city and Billi reassuring her. It’s also a volley…
‘Illicit Markets’ and Cultural Insensitivity
I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a source who works for a cannabis advocacy organization informing me that, “across the industry,” folks in the weed world are asking the press not to use the term “black market” any longer because it is “not culturally sensitive.” “Illicit or illegal market is the…
Intent is the Same
Editor: What counts as a mass shooting? (“31 Points,” Aug. 8.) Recently there have been three mass killings: in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton. The day before the Gilroy massacre, there was also a mass shooting in Brooklyn, New York. So why didn’t we see headlines about this? The reason is that, although 12 people…
‘The Trump Extinction Plan’
Editor: I am writing in support of the Endangered Species Act and in opposition to efforts by Congress to undermine this landmark wildlife conservation law (“Rollback of Endangered Species’ Protections Raising Fears,” posted Aug. 13). The Endangered Species Act is a safety net for fish, plants and wildlife on the brink of extinction. Since President…
