How to Die in California
A high-profile death may help usher in a right-to-die option in the Golden State, furthering a local legislator’s work
Cover Story
How to Die in California
The call comes on your cell when you least expect it, while in line for coffee at Ramone’s in Old Town. The doctor, a specialist from out of town, says, “The telephone isn’t the ideal way to deliver test results, but …” You urge him to proceed. So, he tells you about your brain cancer.…
Eureka Closes Blue Heron; Squireses File Claim for Damages
Eureka officials shuttered the Blue Heron Lodge this morning, boarding up the dilapidated blue building after working to help tenants find temporary housing assistance. The city contends that the property’s owners, Floyd and Betty Squires, have failed to secure a lodging permit for the 15-room on Broadway for this year, after operating without one for…
Jury Selection Underway in Kneeland Murder Case
Jury selection began this morning in the federal trial of Mikal Wilde, who stands accused of killing a worker at the scene of his Kneeland marijuana farm in 2010. Wilde faces a total of six charges, including cultivation of more than 1,000 marijuana plants with intent to distribute and murder in the commission of a…
UPDATED Former Blue Lake Resident, Musician Kyle Scott Killed in Car Crash: ‘My Heart is Broken’
UPDATE: A memorial for Kyle Scott will take place Monday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. at the Logger Bar. Details here. It’s strange hearing about someone’s death on Facebook, although that seems to be the new norm. It’s even stranger clicking over to the person’s timeline and reading through the displays of anguish until you…
Clamming: A Photo Essay by Mark Larson
Our recent very high king tides also brought some very low tides to the North Coast – and low tides this time of year mean fans of razor clams head to Clam Beach south of Trinidad. My first introduction as a child to eating seafood was my Aunt Sara’s clam chowder, made with razor clams…
Eureka School District Settles ACLU Lawsuit
Eureka City Schools has settled a civil rights lawsuit alleging pervasive and systemic discrimination against minority students, agreeing to an action plan aimed at improving conditions in the district’s schools. Filed in December 2013 by the Americans Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Center for Youth Law, the lawsuit alleged district administrators…
Lessons from The Devil Makes Three
When The Devil Makes Three first played in Humboldt County a decade ago, not many bands were doing what it did. We had our string bands, sure, both bluegrass and old-timey, and we had a bit of a punk scene, but the line between, say, the Humboldt Folklife Society and The Placebo was distinct. The…
Fritter Nation
Deep-fried dough and fruit glazed with sugar sounds like a recipe impossible to flub. But Humboldt County has an abundance of goodies, and we can afford to be discerning. This was the philosophy, anyway, when my research partner-in-crime proposed finding our region’s premiere pastry via a Fritter Bracket. Loosely modeled after statistician Nate Silver’s national…
‘Are You OK?’
Two weeks ago the Journal published an op-ed I wrote about the rape and exploitation of women in our local weed industry. It got a very interesting response. A friend from my hometown emailed to ask if I was writing about a community member accused of rape. Another friend who works in the industry texted…
Up Sproul Creek
SoHum residents got their first taste of a new enforcement regimen targeting the environmental impacts of marijuana grows last week. It was hardly jackboots and black helicopters, according to State Water Board enforcer Cris Carrigan, who developed the pilot enforcement program with other state and local agencies (See “A Big Stick,” Oct. 23, 2014). Representatives…
Ode to Old Town
These red bricked streets and earthquaked buildings These long glass eyes Ghosts of burgeoning vines and overlapping progeny These haunting grounds These homes for dreams, plans, dust collecting between the stones, foam in the fountain (tonight, last time) Pigeons and people, the players Change, and keep on changing The dramas remain, consistency of concerns Shops…
Thinking Outside the Galaxy
When it comes to thinking outside the box, Nikolai Kardashev is your man. In 1963, the then 31-year-old Soviet astrophysicist ranked hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations in terms of their energy use with what is now known as the “Kardashev classification scheme.” His interest was SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence using radio telescopes — specifically, he…
Mortdecai Mortifies
Reviews MORTDECAI. It was one of the great, pleasant surprises of my adult literary life when a friend introduced me to the Charlie Mortdecai books (Don’t Point That Thing at Me; After You with the Pistol; Something Nasty in the Woodshed). Written by the late (I’d say great) Kyril Bonfiglioli, the three slim volumes detail…
Bloody Good
There’s so much blood. Physically and thematically, Shakespeare’s Macbeth is steeped in thick, sticky, red blood. Arguably, it’s not the Bard’s most disturbing play (Titus Andronicus takes the cake on that one because its cake is made of people), but it ranks among the top five. At its foundation, like so many of Shakespeare’s tragedies,…
Physics, shmysics
Editor: The Nobel Prize in Physics is awaiting Judy Hodgson’s diet guru, Dr. Robert Lustig, if he can back up, “There goes the First Law of Thermodynamics, right out the window …” (“Obesity — How’d THAT Happen?” Jan. 22). To the best of my knowledge, the First Law is still safe and sound, however, and…
ACLU Angst
Many of us in Humboldt County love the independence we have in our tiny towns far from the big city, but we also want to be a part of what’s happening out in the world. We want it both ways. Maybe that’s at the heart of a rift currently taking place between the folks at…
Arias in the Area
Schlepping to San Francisco for your opera fix isn’t always practical, but missing out entirely would be courtesan-with-tuberculosis tragic. Take in an intimate evening with up-and-coming stars when the San Francisco Opera Center Singers fill the Calvary Lutheran Church with sweet, sweet music on Friday, Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. ($30, $12 and $5). Whether…
