Cover Story
Kinetic Rides Again
The rest of the world is trying to get back to “normal” but here in Humboldt, we’re just happy to go out in the fresh air and get weird again. After two years of paused and remote races, the human-powered Kinetic Grand Championship once again rolled around the Arcata Plaza, down the Manila Dunes, into…
Dillingham, Eads, Madrone Win Big, While Arroyo Teeters Toward Runoff
When the dust settled from an Election Night short on drama and long on waits, it left a handful of candidates looking to take office with what can fairly be described as voter mandates. The county’s final election night report posted shortly before 1 a.m. and included 14,844 ballots counted, equaling about 17 percent of…
Thousands of Ballots Still to be Counted in June 7 Election
More than 20,400 ballots from the June 7 election remain to be counted, including 19,962 mail-ins, according to the county Elections Office. While the die appears to be be cast in several races, including Cheryl Dillingham’s apparent victory to become the county’s next auditor-controller, Stacey Eads’ in the district attorney’s race, incumbent Steve Madrone’s in…
Humboldt Crabs Win Season Opener Before Washout
Even before the first pitch was thrown or the first batter stepped up to home plate, it was clear Arcata was ready for baseball to be back. The line stretched down F Street outside of the ballpark through the opening innings as over 1,100 fans made their way inside to watch the Humboldt Crabs open…
Stillman to Return to Arcata City Council After Commanding Win
FINAL ELECTION NIGHT REPORT: Alexandra Stillman will be returning to the Arcata City Council, having taken 41 percent of the 1,422 ballots counted thus far in a six-way race, far outpacing runner up Kimberley White’s 22 percent. FOURTH UPDATE: The latest update did not add any ballots to the Arcata City Council race, which Alexandra…
Steward Takes Judicial Race
FINAL ELECTION NIGHT REPORT: The final election night report leaves Deputy District Attorney Steven Steward poised to become Humboldt County’s next superior court judge, having taken 57 percent of the 12,963 ballots counted thus for to Deputy Public Defender Ben McLaughlin’s 43 percent. FOURTH REPORT: Deputy District Attorney Steven Steward continues to build on his…
Nielsen, Cervantes Appear Headed Toward Runoff in Clerk-Recorder-Registrar Race
FINAL ELECTION NIGHT REPORT: Tiffany Hunt Nielsen grew her lead a bit more in the final election night count, pulling 46 percent of the 13,271 votes counted for clerk-recorder and registrar of voters, outpacing Juan Pablo Cervantes’ 41 percent of the vote and Benjamin Hershberger’s 13 percent. The tally seemingly leaves Nielsen and Cervantes poised…
Fifth District: Madrone Cruises to Another Term
FINAL ELECTION NIGHT REPORT: Challenger Larry Doss picked up some ground in the final election night report but continues to trail Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone by a wide margin, with the incumbent having taken 61 percent of the vote to Doss’ 39 percent. FOURTH REPORT: The Fifth District race saw a few more ballots…
Eads Finishes Night With Decisive Win
FINAL ELECTION NIGHT REPORT: Deputy District Attorney Stacey Eads will be Humboldt County’s next top prosecutor, taking over for her mentor Maggie Fleming, who announced she will retire at the end of the year. Eads has taken 59 percent of the 13,749 votes counted thus far in the race, far outpacing Deputy Public Defender Adrian…
Arroyo Leads Big in Fourth District But Runoff Possible
FINAL ELECTION NIGHT REPORT: The final election night report leaves Eureka City Councilmember Natalie Arroyo holding a commanding lead in the race for Humboldt County Fourth District supervisor but clinging delicately to the 50-percent threshold needed to avoid a November runoff. The last Election Night tally has Arroyo having taken 50.21 percent of the 2,354…
It’s Dillingham in a Landslide for Auditor-Controller
FINAL ELECTION NIGHT REPORT: Challenger Cheryl Dillingham has capped a remarkable night in which she jumped out to a huge lead in the auditor-controller race and simply never looked back, finishing with 70 percent of the vote to embattled incumbent Karen Paz Dominguez’s 23 percent, capturing the most decisive win of the night in the…
Suspect in Mall Parking Lot Explosion Arrested
A Eureka man was arrested June 3 on suspicion of detonating an explosive device in a Bayshore Mall parking lot that sent debris flying more than 250 feet, nearly hitting two people, according to the Eureka Police Department. According to a news release, Casey William Moore, 44, who was identified as a suspect during an…
Climate Controversy: California’s Plan for Handling Crisis is Flawed, Advisors Say
As California races to prevent the irreversible effects of climate change, some experts are questioning key policies that the state is counting on to meet its ambitious goals and accusing state officials of failing to provide substantial details to back up its claims. The California Air Resources Board’s proposal, called a scoping plan, outlines policies…
Fatal Pedestrian Crash on 101
The California Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal early morning June 5 collision that occurred on U.S. Highway 101 just north of the Bayside cutoff. According to a news release, a pedestrian, whose name was not released pending notification of kin, was struck just after 3 a.m. Impairment of the driver, who received minor injuries,…
NCJ Preview: Kinetic Madness, Desperate Times
This week photographer Mark McKenna joins us to talk about the return of the Kinetic Grand Championship after a two-year COVID hiatus and what it’s like to shoot the wild ride over asphalt, sand and sea. This week’s issue is also full of opinions, including on Brett Watson, harassment and the limits of civil debate…
Dennis Carl Andersen: 1946-2021
Dennis Carl Andersen Sr., 74, a local native of Ferndale, California, residing in Marion, Oregon, passed away on Aug. 13, 2021. Dennis loved the outdoors. Whether it was hunting, fishing, or just crackin’ a cold one. He had a passion for refurbishing old cars, he loved poker and social nights with his friends, and most…
Grand Jury Report Blasts Auditor-Controller, Auditor-Controller Says it’s All Incorrect
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has interjected itself directly into the county’s auditor-controller race. Less than a week before Election Day, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury poured gasoline on what was already considered to be the county’s most contentious political race yesterday, issuing a largely scathing report stating incumbent Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez’s…
Back to the Beach: Kids Ocean Day 2022
Hundreds of Humboldt County school children participated in this year’s 17th annual Kids Ocean Day event by helping to restore dune habitat at the Mike Thompson Wildlife Area on the South Spit of Humboldt Bay. To mark the day, the kids joined together with their classmates, teachers and volunteers to form the shape of three…
Barbara Rose Stephens: 1933-2022
Barbara Rose Stephens passed away on May 21, 2022 at Frye’s Care Home in Eureka. Her husband, Ron, of 66 years, was at her side. Barbara was born in 1933 in Osage County, Oklahoma, the youngest of 9 siblings to Clarence and Rose Woods. Barbara came to Eureka in the midst of the “Dust Bowl”…
HWMA Temporarily Closing and Relocating Eureka Recycling Center
Humboldt County residents won’t be able to recycle their freon appliances, like refrigerators and air conditioning systems, or electronic waste at the Eureka Recycling Center for a little while as Humboldt Waste Management Authority is temporarily closing the center beginning Aug. 1 HWMA is relocating the Eureka Recycling Center to a different site and using…
Zandezi Asks, ‘Where is the Justice?’
That’s the fundamental question in Zimbabwe Theatre Academy’s Zandezi, now playing at Dell’Arte’s Carlo Theatre in Blue Lake. What matters more to a man: that he prove he’s been wrongly convicted, or benefit from an amnesty program? That he care for a sick cellmate or accept that sufficient food comes at a price? That he…
Why Brett Watson Needs to Resign
If Arcata City Councilmember Brett Watson cares about his city, he needs to resign. Immediately. The third-party investigative report sustaining allegations that Watson engaged in the prolonged harassment of a city employee and abused his authority is damning. But even more damning are the hundreds of pages of emails and texts included with the report,…
Flying High at the Redwood Coast Kite Festival
For an event that members of Humboldt Kiters didn’t start planning until three months ago, the Redwood Coast Kite Festival in Eureka on Saturday, May 21 turned out to be an artistic display of kiting and kite creation. It was also a whole lot of fun for those who attended on the first day of…
It Might Be Time to Get Totally Motherfucking Unhinged
We have voted and we have debated. And here we are with 120.5 civilian guns per 100 people and an endless stream of gun violence and school shootings. Gunshot wounds are now the leading cause of child death in the United States. Peaceful marches are powerful and energizing. But even after children who survived the…
Eureka Boats Leave the Salmon Biting
Last Friday and Saturday produced some of the best ocean sport salmon fishing we’ve seen in years — or maybe ever. It was nearly impossible not to get limits if you were anywhere near the right spot. And then the winds blew in and the seas turned rough, keeping the fleet tied up Sunday and…
Bad Women Like Me
When I was 24 years old, I worked the graveyard shift at a youth hostel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It was fine, sometimes even fun. I rarely felt unsafe in that neighborhood, but I often felt unsafe while doing my job. There was the long-term resident, a student, who would call me at the front…
With the Boys
MEN. I first became aware of Alex Garland as a screenwriter in 2002, when 28 Days Later was released. Directed by Danny Boyle, that picture — not to be confused with the almost contemporaneous Sandra Bullock rehab comedy with a very similar title — delivered a new, kinetic perspective on the zombie/rage virus genre (yes,…
Setting the ‘Record Straight’
Editor: Regarding Allison Edrington’s letter (Mailbox, May 19), I would like to set the record straight on the two points she made. The Eureka City Council voted unanimously to approve a letter to the Wiyot tribe on March 18, 2014, contrary to what she said in her letter. On the issue of what happened to Jefferson School…
FPPC: Bushnell Right to Recuse Herself from Cannabis Tax Vote
Humboldt County Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell was correct to recuse herself from discussing and voting on local cannabis tax relief earlier this year, the California Fair Political Practices Commission has advised, finding she had an economic interest in the issue. The FPPC informed Bushnell of its decision in a recent letter, which was sent…
‘Acrid Commentary’
Editor: While browsing for movies to watch in the “Now Playing” section of the NCJ (Screens, May 19), I was taken aback by the 2000 MULES listing. Instead of finding a synopsis of what 2000 Mules was actually about, my eyes were greeted by an acrid commentary. In fairness to all the readers of NCJ,…
Fresh Fables
It’s a brand-new month on the cusp of a new season, so let’s try something new in the Setlist. Rather than fill your head with information about some weird thing I’m reading, a new obsession I’ve developed, doom-filled mutterings about incoming degrading horrors from our broken government or an overwrought story about personal hardships, how…
A Gathering Gale
Overhead: the soaring sounds, Calling. Down here: The edgy electricity Jostles limbs, Loosening blackened blooms And thickened tassels Of tiny pears to the back porch Wind chime chatter. Damn these winds! To stir stale oceans, Stomping seasons, And lifting life anew In their leaving. Sam A. Flanagan
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Who loves the truth better than you Aries people? Who has the greatest potential to speak the real story in every situation, even when it requires extra courage? Who has more fun than you in discovering and defining and expressing the raw facts? In my Book of Life, you Rams are…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive
Eureka Main Street presents First Saturday Night Arts Alive on June 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. Our galleries, museums, theaters, bars and restaurants are open. Some businesses continue to require everyone to wear masks and follow other COVID safety precautions to keep patrons and staff safe. Please respect the standards set by individual businesses,…
Rocky Horror Revival Rises in Ferndale
I wish I’d brought my Erotica red lip stain to Ferndale Repertory Theatre to mark the first-time audience members’ foreheads with a large V to anoint them into the cult that is the The Rocky Horror Show, first mounted in 1973 with music and lyrics by Richard O’Brien, and adapted for the screen as The…
