‘Immediate Jeopardy’
Horror stories and deep legal troubles at Humboldt County’s for-profit nursing homes
Cover Story
‘Immediate Jeopardy’
In the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, skilled nursing facilities — those quasi-medical institutions for old or severely disabled folks more commonly called “nursing homes” — are one of the few booming businesses going. On any given day, 1.5 million Americans reside in the nation’s nursing homes. More than 3 million annually rely…
What happened to KEET?
folks! Some of you may have noticed that your one and only PBS affiliate and/or some radio station you listen to disappeared today. Wondering why? KEET outreach coordinator Claire Reynolds explains: MANDATORY SHUTDOWN AT THE KEET-TV TOWER INTERRUPTS TELEVISION AND RADIO BROADCASTING Due to work on the KEET-TV tower in Kneeland, KEET-TV’s digital signals…
Your Slice of Seven-O-Heaven
$85,500.”Your Slice of Seven-O-Heaven: The second and last weekend of North Coast Open Studios is coming up; it takes place all around the county Saturday and Sunday. And in the NCOS spirit, Andrew Goff, creator of the runaway hit “Seven-O-Heaven” cartoons that now grace every issue of the Journal, has opened up his virtual studio…
Humboldters In the News
housing.”Humboldters In the News: Phish concert in North Carolina: “Christopher Michael Ventura, 27, of McKinleyville, Calif., charged with trafficking in more than 100 grams of ecstasy, possession with intent to sell and deliver 50 grams of marijuana, 15.3 grams of psilocybin, 152 grams of ecstasy, 124 grams of Ketamine, maintaining a vehicle for a controlled…
Humboldt County DA to be sued by homeless camp participants : Indybay
things.Humboldt County DA to be sued by homeless camp participants : Indybay: People Project folks busted at the homeless encampment protest in Arcata in 2007 are suing Gallegos and company because they participated in the raid, and “continue to perpetuate the criminalizing of poor people, including those who live without
Northcoast Prep: #30 in America
Northcoast Prep: #30 in America: Wow! Newsweek ranks Arcata’s Northcoast Preparatory and Performing Arts Academy as the third-best public high school in California and 30th-best in the nation! Congrats, Northcoast Prep! Congrats, also, to Arcata High, which comes in at #1,154 and is thus in the top six percent of high schools in the country,…
Native Poet Laureate
From the Paradise Post — over yonder by Chico — we learn that the woman who is “the poet of the Hupa Tribe” is also now the poet laureate for all of the California Native American tribes. She’s 85-year-old Arline Beryl Lawrence, and the Post says she was honored at the recent Ishi Celebration in…
Wave of the future
Wave of the future: The pun is so obvious as to be painful, but give them a break — they’re just investors. This “premier financial website for actionable stock market opinion and analysis” tells you, yes YOU, how to make money from wave energy…specifically via Finavera Renewables, the Canadian company building a wave farm right…
Feelin’ AMPT
With the Eureka Skate Park scheduled to be skatable by the end of the summer , let the Humboldt skate-scene P.R. campaign begin. Clearly not all of this video was shot behind the Redwood Curtain (the Golden Gate timelapse, por ejemplo ), but much of it clearly was. (Feel free to play “identify that clip”…
Angel Betty in the Bee
Betty Chinn, winner of a Minerva Award, with First Lady Maria Shriver at the 2008 Women’s Conference. (Michael Buckner/Getty Images North America) Another story — this time in the Sac Bee — details the giving, tireless force of nature that is Humboldt’s Betty Chinn . Go here to study previous coverage . And then go…
Alive!
suppose. The streets of Old Town were alive with the sound of music Saturday evening — the monthly Arts Alive! was on in full force with musical contributions from SambaAmore: among others. The sweet ringing tones of Pan Dulce steel orchestra rang from the Gazebo zone: and Rick Fugate played his accordion…
When the Thrill of Blogging Is Gone … – NYTimes.com
When the Thrill of Blogging Is Gone … – NYTimes.com: subhead: “Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest.” Fred used to police the local blogosphere sending out notes to bloggers who’d fallen behind in their blogging duties. Now he doesn’t bother – too many abandoned blogs to keep track of I
Bursting Balloons
Editor: I enjoyed your recent well-researched and -written cover article (“The McKay Tract,” May 21). However, perhaps you should check your spelling … are you sure it isn’t The McKay Track? Ric Schlexer, McKinleyville
For What It’s Worth
Top execs from just about every major U.S. newspaper chain met in Chicago late last month to discuss ways to get you to pay for news you get over the Internet. But you won’t find news of that meeting or what came out of it in any of their newspapers or online sites. Maybe they…
Which Earth First!?
Editor: I just read the article on the McKay Tract, and one paragraph stood out among the rest — Trees Foundation funding for Earth First! Humboldt. In the lawsuit brought against the Trees Foundation, by a donor who attempted to make a $185,000 donation to North Coast Earth First!, the Trees Foundation stated that they…
Pipe Dreams
Editor: The story by Heidi Walters in last week’s Journal does not reflect what I wanted to convey when I spoke with her on the phone (“Cult of the Pipe,” May 21). I felt pressured because of her “Tuesday deadline” admonitions and failed to reiterate that I mostly wanted to ask if we, the residents,…
Hyped Up
Previews If you’re looking for something other than brain-dead film fare this coming weekend, visit a local video rental store. Opening Friday, June 5, is The Hangover, a comedy directed by Todd Phillips (School for Scoundrels) about, as the title suggests, a wild bachelor party in Vegas wherein one of the celebrants fails to appear…
Food for Thought
Editor: While I have been inspired to write regarding several issues in the last couple of months, particularly after your comments about legalization and the call for open discussion (“Town Dandy”, May 14) — I wanted to point out that many items need more open discussion and, while this is Humboldt County, along with most…
Disabling Cuts
Last Friday afternoon, in John Anderson’s modest, garden-lavish Eureka house, the cockatiels in the huge, covered, indoor-outdoor cage attached to his bedroom were up to their usual stunts. An outburst of chirps here, a cheery shriek there. Anderson was in the kitchen, where a gazillion thriving potted plants seemed to be taking over the windowed…
Robbin’ Hoods
Editor: Thanks for your column of May 14 (“Town Dandy”)! In some of our “community” meetings here, I’ve listened to certain of our local growers smugly and proudly romanticize themselves as “outlaws.” I get the feeling that they envision themselves as Errol Flynn clones flitting through the forest dressed in green tights as they continually…
Viva La Juerga
Looking for something cool to do in San Francisco on a Friday night, we somehow ended up at The Rickshaw Stop, where bicycles hung from the ceiling and a band called Diego’s Umbrella was on stage. I’d heard about the S.F. band’s cross-genre mash-up; they’d played their "Mexicali Gypsy Pirate Rock" in Humboldt a few…
Arts Alive!
1. WORLD CUP 1626 F St. Visually impaired and blind artists, lighthouses of the North Coast by; live music. 1a. F ST. CAFÉ 1630 F St. 2. THE INK PEOPLE CENTER FOR THE ARTS 411 12th St. Kelley Barrett, Stephen Clark, Denise Dodd, Margaret Draper, Korinna Irwin, Jen Prather, Carol Pryor, Michel Sergeant, Erin Slattery,…
Not Equal Yet
Editor: Although I’m not a Certified Town Dandy or licensed attorney, I feel qualified (from decades of civil rights activism) to correct a common misconception that seemed to be expressed in Hank Sims’ column last week (“Town Dandy,” May 28). There are dozens of legal rights included in marriage (regardless whether the marriage is performed…
Dry-land Exiles
…we will not really be happy until we can escape from gravity. We are exiles here on dry land, in transit between the ocean of water in which we were born and the ocean of space where most of history will run its course. –Arthur Clarke As a kayaker, I love to spy on the…
summer coming
the grass in the fields is tall (it…
Hansel and Gretel
Kids’ dance productions are about that: kids dancing. Artistic director Victor Temple’s version of the siblings sent to the woods fairytale gave a lot of kids a lot of chances to dance up a storm. His choreography, appropriate to the abilities of the children, gave them their proper placement in the oeuvre of classical ballet.…
The Caryatids
In the early ?80s, the subgenre of cyberpunk science fiction emerged as an unwieldy hybrid of avant-garde experimentalism and pulp fiction aiming to shake up a parochial literature of the future that seemed mired in conservative clichés of the past. A small circle of friends — William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley and Bruce Sterling…
Dear Barack
Two weeks ago, President Obama sent me an e-mail asking me to tell my personal story about the importance of health care reform in my life. He reminded me of his own personal story, about his mother dying from ovarian cancer 10 years ago and how she spent her last weeks worrying about medical bills.…
Starry, Starry Day
Several years ago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art hosted a comprehensive exhibition of work by Vincent Van Gogh. The paintings brought to life images already culturally ubiquitous. I knew what we’d find because we’ve already seen his work reproduced on everything from notebooks to umbrellas. What I didn’t expect was to be overwhelmed…
Auntie Mayhem
"A play was like a watch that laughed." So wrote theatre critic Walter Kerr, describing the mechanism of Broadway comedies of the ’30s and ’40s, like The Front Page, Room Service, You Can’t Take It With You and the 1939 play now on stage at Ferndale Repertory Theatre, Arsenic and Old Lace. Situations and relationships…
