Cover Story
‘Highway Robbery:’ Drivers Allege Rohnert Park Police Illegally Seized Cannabis, Cash
Huedell Freeman was heading south on U.S. Highway 101 through Cloverdale and was just over the Sonoma County line when he said a police squad car flipped a U-turn across a 25-foot grass median and pulled up behind him with lights flashing. Freeman said he was carrying 47 pounds of marijuana in his rental car…
Fish Fest Faves
The city of Trinidad turned into a giant parking lot on a beautiful calm Sunday morning to handle the large crowd of attendees at the 61st annual Trinidad Fish Festival. Street corners and lawns were filled with yard sales, while the main attraction was the coho salmon from Alaska being barbecued for lunch next to…
Former Harbor Commissioner Banned for Life From Recreational Hunting/Fishing in California
The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously in closed session this afternoon to permanently ban former Humboldt Bay Harbor, Conservation and Recreation District Commissioner Aaron Newman from obtaining a recreational hunting or fishing license. The ban stems from a 2014 criminal case in which Newman faced allegations that he’d habitually poached abalone and lied…
Huffman Applauds Allocation of $29 Million in Fisheries Disaster Relief Funds
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman announced today that the federal government has allocated $25.8 million in disaster assistance to those affected by the 2015-2016 closure of California’s commercial Dungeness and rock crab fisheries and another $3.9 million to the Yurok Tribe stemming from the collapse of the fall Chinook fishery in 2016. “For far too…
Detained Arcata Mom Back With Family
Claudia Portillo is back with family. Seven months after the Arcata mother of four was detained during a routine immigration check-in in San Francisco, the 33 year old was released Tuesday after posting a $12,000 bond. Portillo had been held at federal detention center in Bakersfield where she was transferred in December, one month after…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, June 20
It’s Pints for Non-Profits night again at the Mad River Brewery at 6 p.m. The tunes are free and supplied by the folk and blues-flavored Frogbite, and the cause of the week is Humboldt Homebrewers, so it sounds like a delightfully beery ouroboros to me.
Canada Legalizes Cannabis
With a historic Senate vote today, Canada has legalized recreational marijuana use, becoming the world’s largest nation to do so. Today’s vote means the legalization bill is headed to the governor-general, Queen Elizabeth’s representative, for approval, which is widely considered a mere formality. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s initial goal had been to have legal…
Photos from the Oyster Festivities
Thousands of attendees consumed tens of thousands of oysters at the 28th annual Arcata Bay Oyster Festival on Saturday. The traditional event featured the usual long lines at the favorite award-winning oyster vendors and added a number of new entertainment features, including the Mermaid Lounge and silent disco, to the usual line up of oyster…
Judge Sets Hearing on Jury Misconduct in Goldberg Murder Trial
The man convicted of killing volunteer Fortuna fireman Tim Smith could receive a new trial after a judge today found the defense had presented enough evidence to call for an evidentiary hearing into jury misconduct, according to news reports. Jon David Goldberg, who was found guilty of second-degree murder in March for fatally shooting Smith…
Arcata Rancher Charged on 35 Counts Related to Animal Cruelty Investigation
UPDATE: According to Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Adrian Kamada, at this morning’s arraignment on animal cruelty charges Raymond Christie waived his right to have a preliminary hearing within 60 days. A court date has been set for Aug. 14 and Christie is not currently in custody. The district attorney is filing a motion to…
Eureka Council Considers High-Priced Agenda
A weighty $2 million in decisions are coming before the Eureka City Council today, including a proposed payout, a development loan and whether to sign on to certain conditions in exchange for funds to build a new Sequoia Park Zoo project. But before diving into the regular agenda, the council will meet in a special…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, June 19
Syracuse’s bouncing old skool hip-hop and funk trio Sophistafunk rolls through Humbrews tonight at 9 p.m. A mainstay of the festival and party circuit, these sophisti-cats have also made their bones as a featured act tapped for his birthday party by the frosted-one himself, Guy Fieri. So if that seems like the sign of a…
Arcata Mom Granted Bail After 7-Month Immigration Detention
An Arcata woman has been granted the opportunity to post bail by a federal immigration judge after a seven-month detention in Bakersfield. Claudia Portillo, a 33 year old who immigrated to the United States from El Salvador when she was 7, was taken into custody and transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in…
Aww, Shucks: Crabs Lose Two on Oyster Fest Weekend
Well folks, I’ll be honest with you, it was a rough weekend. Beleaguered from a successful two-game road trip in the Redding heat, one they won in the 20th inning (yes, you read that right), our favorite crustaceans dropped two of three to the visiting Seattle Studs (yes, you read that right, too). Friday, June…
Music Tonight: Monday, June 18
Sushi Spot in McKinleyville continues to host the jazz duo Anemones of the State on the first and third Monday of every month for a free set for the roll-and-sake crowd starting at 5 p.m. Bring your hungry ears and mouths like some sort of beautiful shellfish and just gorge on the tastiness.
HumBug: Giants
On a recent trip up to central Oregon, at a rest area along the Rogue River there were several giant California stoneflies (Pteronarcys californica). This is the largest species of stonefly in the world. Common along my stretch of the Van Duzen River, I recognized them immediately. They are totally harmless and their presence indicates…
Music Tonight: Sunday, June 17
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish my own father a happy one from afar because he is currently visiting his parents’ land of Canada. And having outed my family as immigrants, I would also like to take a moment to state that ICE is an American Gestapo and that I fully support its…
Oyster Fest Winners
By 10:15 a.m., parking was scarce, revelers were flowing onto the plaza and the first entries for Best Raw Oyster at the Arcata Bay Oyster Festival were teetering toward the judges on an ice-packed tray. By noon, the staff was tallying ballots, and by 1:40 p.m., the winners were on the books and volunteer coordinator…
Music Tonight: Saturday, June 16
Well it’s Oyster Fest in Arcata today on the plaza. Will my heroic love of bivalves win over my seething dislike of crowds? I don’t yet know but I will suggest two shows to appease those who are either drawn to the spectacle or smitten by the idea of wedging a healthy distance between oneself…
True Oyster Cult
The summer festival scene in Humboldt doesn’t mess around. From bustling farmers markets to music and food extravaganzas, weekends June through August have a ton to offer. This weekend thousands of locals and out-of-towners flood the plaza for the Arcata Bay Oyster Festival. On Saturday, June 16, follow your nose to the Arcata Plaza for…
Eureka High Gifted Strings and Things from Sara Bareilles
The music department at Eureka High School has a little more string in its step after a gift from a famous alum yesterday. Music, Broadway, TV and soon-to-be Apple TV star Sara Bareilles teamed up with Yamaha Entertainment Group and Eastman Strings to send her fellow Loggers some string instruments and audio equipment. Bareilles posted…
County Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit for $3.5 Million
The county of Humboldt has settled the federal civil rights lawsuit stemming from the 2014 jail death of Daren Borges, agreeing to pay Borges’ family $3.5 million in damages and legal fees, and to make various changes to jail policy. Borges, 42, a homeless, schizophrenic poet and artist, was living in Eureka at the time…
Music Tonight: Friday, June 15
New York jazz pianist, composer and Columbia and Julliard grad Ben Rosenblum is known for his rhythm block-chorded, Bill Evans-esque chops. With bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Ben Zweig he has formed — what else — the Ben Rosenblum Trio, which will present its modern jazz sounds to the lucky people at the Sanctuary tonight…
Lawsuit: Zoellner Alleges APD Falsified Reports in Lawson Investigation
Kyle Zoellner, the 24-year-old McKinleyville man accused last year of fatally stabbing a Humboldt State University student on April 15, 2017, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Arcata alleging police and city officials violated his civil rights. Zoellner — who was arrested at the scene of an off-campus party where David Josiah Lawson,…
We’re All Mad Here
Dell’Arte International’s sprawling Mad River Festival spans over four weeks with original theatrical work by the Dell’Arte Company, robust family fun and larger-than-life performances, plus a week-long folklife festival with foot-tapping tunes from some pretty tight musicians. Now in its 28th year, the festival runs June 14-July 15 and offers audiences groundbreaking experimental theater, shadow…
Music Tonight: Thursday, June 14
KEET/KHSU continues its free Lost Coast Sessions series at the Arcata Playhouse tonight at 7:30 p.m. with superb local funksters Object Heavy as the solo act on the bill. Word on the street suggests that the music won’t be the only free attraction and that pizza from The Jam and a free copy of the…
Homemade Silver Pin Noodles
There are many recipes for handmade Chinese silver pin noodles, sometimes called needle noodles or yin zhen fen. However my favorite is the one my grandma used to make for us when I was a kid. Every time I make these noodles, I think of the good old times with her in China. The fragrance…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): My Aries acquaintance Tatiana decided to eliminate sugar from her diet. She drew up a plan to avoid it completely for 30 days, hoping to permanently break its hold over her. I was surprised to learn that she began the project by making a Dessert Altar in her bedroom, where she…
Plenty of Canni, No Fest
It’s official. Humboldt County — long considered the heart of California’s marijuana country — will not have a cannabis festival in the foreseeable future. The Ferndale Enterprise reported this week that organizers’ final push to put on Cannifest — a locally produced “cannabis festival and trade gathering” — has met an immovable object in the…
Summer Garden Bling
Hang on to your hats — the heat of the home garden season is on. As we continue to enjoy defrosted or canned pumpkin puree from last year’s Great Pumpkin in muffins, curries and pies, we are thinking ahead by planning our harvest for the fall to come. Longer, warmer days offer plenty of inspiration…
Sundberg's Chances to Take the Fifth and Why it Takes So Long to Count the Votes
By the time this paper hits newsstands, it will have been a week since Election Day and a fifth of the county’s electorate remains on edge, awaiting the results of a nail-biter of a supervisorial race currently separated by just 33 votes. With the final and generally definitive post-election tally at least a week away,…
A Mother Gets Through Graduation Season
As June approached, I opened my mailbox to an assorted collection of high school graduation announcements. Just as it once seemed that everyone I knew was birthing children, it now seems that everyone I know is graduating children. How well I remember the chaotic pace of the senior year. Eighteen years of parenting coalesce down…
Correlation ≠ Causation
Mention just about any scientific finding involving a chain of causation — anthropocentric global warming, monarch butterflies/milkweed destruction, fluoridation/fewer cavities (“Colorado Brown Stain,” May 31) — and you’ll hear “correlation isn’t causation” from skeptics. And they’re right. If you suggest A causes B, they’re going to ask, “How are you so sure B doesn’t cause…
Whitethorn Doorway
I was in the right place and then I was even more in the right place. Between two oceanic storms flooding roads, battering umbrellas of those few beyond walls, this day bloomed daffodilic in early springtime sun. Between work and more work a woodswalk summoned beyond the warm and open studio with its tea and…
Fathers and Fests
We are creeping toward the salad days of summer, my dears, and this week has some proper preludes for that laziest, grasshopper-ish of seasons. Oyster Fest is here (a truly strange notion to me as no one sensible in my former home of Louisiana eats oysters in the warm months, but we are luckily blessed…
Why I’m Pulling My Support from KHSU After 25 Years
I first heard of Katie Whiteside’s firing from my dear old Mom and thought to myself, “You must have heard it wrong. No, that just can’t be.” After a few phone calls, I felt that I had to repeat that sentence in a more imperative way: No. That just can’t be. After (in order of…
A Girl’s Best Friend
Reviews OCEAN’S 8. Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 (2001), itself a remake of a Rat Pack vehicle, and a franchise that’s been uneven at best, isn’t old enough for an all-lady spin-off to provoke rending of clothing over ruined childhoods, which is a nice change. Director Gary Ross may not have Soderbergh’s pacing or the edits…
‘Incomparably Magnificent’
Editor: You think anyone would dare pitch you a humor column after reading the incomparably magnificent “The Cat Would Like to Open a Dialogue” (May 31) by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill? Joyce King, McKinleyville
‘Cancel Your Contributions’
Editor: Regarding the firing of longtime KHSU employee Katie Whiteside (“Consternation at KHSU,” June 7), though I, along with many others, have emailed, written and/or called KHSU General Manager Peter Fretwell, Humboldt State University Vice President for Advancement Craig Wruck and HSU President Lisa Rossbacher, I fear that our consternation is falling on deaf ears.…
Good News
Editor: Your June 7 paper, “The Media Literacy Issue,” is fantastic. Thank you so much for putting this out. It is very necessary. Every article, “A Word From the Lying Media,” “Media Basics for Activists,” “Sinclairly Yours,” “How We News,” “Fake News” and “Look at All These Ads,” provides very important information and is very…
