Cover Story
‘A Critical Decision’
Providence Health blindsided patients, employees and providers last week, announcing that it would no longer offer outpatient laboratory services at its California hospitals — including St. Joseph and Redwood Memorial — beginning March 18. Local providers reportedly first received a text message Jan. 10 informing them that outpatient lab services would no longer be provided…
Music Tonight: Thursday, Jan. 25
Last week had some burnt offerings for the festival crowd of feel-goods out there and this week starts no differently. Papadosio is a quintet that recently hails from Asheville, North Carolina, which in my recollection was always a little hippie bubble in the mid-east South. The sound is very jammy, with organic bubbles of jazzy…
EPD Identifies Suspect Killed in Standoff
Eureka police have identified the man fatally shot by Humboldt County Deputy Sheriffs after a lengthy standoff yesterday as Daniel Martinez, 43, of Eureka. According to police, the incident began at about 5:45 a.m. with a report of a juvenile with a “significant laceration” to his neck who said he’d been assaulted by a family…
Security National Ballot Measure Attorney Signed Jacobs Land Deal on Mystery Developer’s Behalf
In the weeks since Eureka City Schools decided to break off negotiations with the California Highway Patrol and enter into an agreement with a mystery developer to trade 8.2 acres of its old Jacobs Middle School campus for a small home on I Street and $5.35 million in cash, several of the entities with a…
Cal State Faculty Ends Strike After Reaching Tentative Contract Agreement
A Cal State systemwide strike secured what more than half a year of negotiations and partial strikes couldn’t: a deal. Negotiators of the California Faculty Association and California State University finalized a tentative agreement last tonight, the union said, ending what would have been a week-long strike at the nation’s largest four-year public university system.…
EPD: Suspect Shot After Hours-Long Standoff
Eureka police shot a suspect yesterday after he allegedly stabbed a juvenile, took several hostages and engaged in an hours-long standoff with officers. Police reported they were called to a residence in the 1400 block of Union Street around 5:45 a.m. yesterday after a report that a 12 year old had been stabbed. “Upon further…
Mazzotti’s Shuts its Doors
On Thursday, Jan. 11, Joe Mazzotti says he had nobody to cook at Mazzotti’s, so he didn’t open the iconic Arcata Plaza restaurant. “December was probably one of the toughest financial Decembers I’ve had to face,” he says, explaining the restaurant was only pulling in about half of its usual $5,000 per night. “My money…
CHP: Three Killed in Crash on 101 North of Rio Dell
Three people were killed last night in a head-on crash on U.S. Highway 101 north of Rio Dell caused by a car driving north in the southbound lanes. The identities of the deceased are being withheld until their families can be notified, according to the California Highway Patrol. At 10:37 p.m. yesterday, the CHP’s dispatch…
Comedy Tonight: Monday, Jan.22
The Crisp Lounge is once again hosting comedian Pete Nelson’s multimedia show Pete’s Projecting Again. This is a gig working on becoming a regular institution, so you know what to do if you want to support local comedians throwing a variety show on one of our most notorious off-nights. At 7 p.m. Tickets are a…
Music Tonight: Sunday, Jan. 21
If you are a fan of the sort of music that is brewed up in jammy cauldrons for the purpose of making kombucha tonics of festival-friendly tunes whose experimentation never strays too far from note-filled dance grooves and good vibration flavors, then this is your night. Your only quarrel is figuring out how to navigate…
Music Tonight: Saturday, Jan. 20
Tonight belongs to hip hop, at least over at Humbrews, anyway. From 6 to 9 p.m., there will be an all-ages cypher hosted by Chill Will and DJ Burnt Reynolds. Then, after an hour-long reset, the 21-and-over crowd takes over, where for $10 you can enjoy performances by ATG, RA HMPT and Area Sound, all…
Judge Takes Earth Flag Case Under Submission
The future of the Earth flag’s spot on city-owned flagpoles in Arcata is now in the hands of a Humboldt County Superior Court judge. After hearing brief final arguments today, Judge Timothy Canning said he would take the matter under submission before rendering a ruling based on those comments and a series of briefs submitted…
Lab Letdown, Health Disparities and Eating/Weeding Veggies
For our annual Health and Wellness issue, we’re diving into why vital outpatient lab services are leaving. We’re also looking at how Humboldt stacks up against the rest of the state in terms of health, and why, as well as efforts to combat suicide in our county. Finally, we’ll look at gardening for health, a…
Music Tonight: Friday, Jan. 19
The Trinidad Town Hall is hosting the RLAD Jazz Quartet with special guest Rob Diggins on the “synth violin” with an evening of music under the inscrutable banner title J.G. “Jes Grew” Bach and Jazz Fusion. No idea what that’s all about. However, I do know the playersare all top notch and the program includes…
Aiming for Zero
For decades, the deadly trend has continued with alarming regularity, though it’s not talked about as much as homicides or fatal car crashes. Over the past 20 years, more than 600 Humboldt County residents have died by suicide, an average of more than 30 a year, routinely leaving Humboldt with one of the highest suicide…
‘The Disparity’
Fifteen pages into Humboldt County’s Community Health Improvement Plan is a blunt summation: “Humboldt County experiences a higher death rate overall when compared to California, and Humboldt rates for nearly all the leading causes of death are two to three times higher than that of the state.” It’s easy to read the line, look over…
Campfire Headphase
Regular readers of this space know that I tend to eulogize a lot, and lately I’ve taken an interest in promoting the life’s work of people who left the land of sunshine in 2023. This isn’t out of some morbid impulse or gothic obsession with death. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, as the more…
Spreading Vegetable Joy
It’s January and “Eat more vegetables” is in the air. There are variations, of course. Fruits are mentioned as well, the Mediterranean diet makes frequent appearances, the gut microbiome may also be invoked. The core message from many voices remains the same: Eat more vegetables. The path to implementing that resonant piece of advice must…
Working it Out in the Garden
Now that it’s January, did you make any New Year’s resolutions? Yes? How’s that working out for you? No? Good job. The older I get, the more I learn that making resolutions only sets me up for failure. Oh, I try and manage to have a few goals with the turning of the calendar, but…
Is Zopissa Right for You?
Always take Zopissa as directed. Like the people in this ad, while laughing in a park with a non-threateningly diverse group of friends in colorful clothing. Or in full makeup with a glass of water in your sunny, spotless kitchen as you smile mysteriously at a cabinet. What’s in the cabinet? That’s your strange and…
Who’s Game?
SELF RELIANCE. Having not yet watched Minx — the Starz smut-mag series — I last checked in with multi-hyphenate Jake Johnson for Ride the Eagle (2021), a charmingly unassuming indie throwback from a time when, still in the throes of the plague, we could be forgiven for thinking the movie business might be in for…
Vote No on A
A ballot initiative called Measure A will be on the ballot in March and there has been a common theme throughout the life of this initiative and the process behind it: a lack of transparency. This initiative was written without any input from the public, the people it would affect or the entities that would…
Cosmic Crisis
There are crises and crises, and unless you’re an avid science buff, you may not realize that cosmologists — the few thousand researchers whose lives are dedicated to understanding the history of the universe from birth to death — are currently faced with a huge predicament that’s only getting worse. It’s to do with the…
Transcendent Ascent
White fir, you are fine in your frosty coat. The weight of the season rests on your branches. Hunker down, sweet conifer. May I make tea from your needles? I hike over rocks and moss and fallen branches. I hike to the peak and look around. The sky is so large. Can I transcend here?…
