Legalization’s Opponents
Critics of Prop. 19 range from skeptical to rabid – and some of them come from inside the movement
Cover Story
Legalization’s Opponents
In 1911, after years of scandal and high-profile corruption trials, California voters overwhelmingly approved one of the most rigorous ballot initiative laws in the country. The idea was to allow voters to bypass state lawmakers when they were too timid, cowed, or corrupt to act on the voters’ behalf. Almost a century later, the process…
Newman Responds to Osborn Campaign Finance Questions
Eureka City Council candidate Mike Newman didn’t respond to Journal freelancer John Osborn’s questions regarding campaign finance in time for this week’s story — apparently there was some miscommunication about deadline — but respond he did. His answers, along with Osborn’s questions, are below. 1. How much money do you plan on raising in this…
Thompson Lands $9.8M For Open Door Clinic
Health care reform is coming to town: Congressman Mike Thompson today announced that Open Door Community Health Centers will receive $9.8 million in federal funding to build a new facility in Eureka. The money stems from the federal Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in March and is aimed at curtailing insurance industry abuses and expanding coverage…
Refuse to Race
Editor: I really appreciated finally seeing something in the NCJ about homeschooling here in Humboldt County (“High School 2.0,” Sept. 30). Thank you to the people who help to organize and support this valuable program. It’s only one part of the world of homeschooling experiences that so many amazing teachers, parents and community members provide…
Majesty Shredding
The North Carolina-based quartet Superchunk helped carve out a sound informed by power pop, punk and ’70s FM radio that shaped an important aspect of ’90s rock. Along with bands such as Guided By Voices, Bob Mould’s Sugar, Wilco and Redd Kross, Superchunk delivered loud guitars, hook-filled riffs, a pounding rhythm section and pop melodies.…
Crowdsourced Copy Edit
Editor: Heidi “Tugboat” Walters may choose to “tow the line” (twice), but I’d prefer that she stand on correct usage and toe the line (“Bigfoot and the Trolls,” Sept. 23). Perhaps a bit of gentle copy oversight is needed, because Jay Aubrey-Herzog’s use of “reign-in” vs. “rein-in” on p. 21 doesn’t even begin to make…
The Whorf Hypothesis
Does our native language affect the way we experience reality? This question has been debated for the last 70 years, since Benjamin Lee Whorf — fire inspector by day, linguistics researcher and anthropology lecturer by night — published an article in which he proposed (among much else) that since the Hopi language has no way…
Arts! Arcata
Arts! Arcata is Arcata Main Street’s monthly celebration of visual and performing arts, held at more than 30 participating locations in Arcata. Visit www.artsarcata.com for even more information about the event or call 822-4500. Arcata Artisans 883 H St. Zak Shea, woodworker; Natalie DiConstanzo, potter; Joyce Jonte; painter. Arcata City Hall 736 F St. Lynne Curtis,…
Return of the Contrarian Optimist
If you, like me, looked forward to someone new submitting his or her thoughts on the Humboldt art beat, sorry to disappoint. Circumstances have compelled me to continue. Given our now enduring relationship, I feel like you should know a bit more about what I bring to the table. Is not all reaction to art…
When the Lights Went Out: A History of Blackouts in America
We live in a world where time and space have been eliminated, where millions of people increasingly live in virtual worlds, and there’s no turning back. Right, and the real estate bubble will never burst and the stock market never goes down. The problem with our electronic future is that it all depends on electricity,…
The Humble Bread Slicer
Images of my mother taking care of me when I was toddler are fleeting but certain. We didn’t have each other for very long, but I remember Brooklyn and shopping with her and my aunt, her kid sister, on 86th Street in Bensonhurst, one of them pushing me in a stroller on sunny mornings as…
Hooking the Readers
If any of you actually liked Ryan Burns’ cover story last month, the one titled “Hooked,” raise your hand. That’s what I thought. But then again, if you liked everything you read, we wouldn’t need a First Amendment. That’s the one that protects our right to speech, press, religion, assembly and petition. It is what…
Getting All Medieval
“A true Renaissance person is always changing — ahead of the times, creative, inventive.” So says Mihael Kavanaugh, one of the inventive volunteers who’ll help run this weekend’s Medieval Festival of Courage. His kids have outgrown Coastal Grove Charter (folks from the school founded the festival eight years ago with parents from Big Lagoon Charter),…
Charles de Gull
Charles rests on a piling That served its…
Something Grass
When the players from Absynth Quintet announced their first “String Thing” concert about a year ago, they called it “the First Annual.” Informed that the term “annual” did not apply until the even was established primary organizer (and AQ guitarist) Ryan Roberts was certain they’d be back. He wasn’t kidding. The Second Annual Sting Thing…
Facebook Movie: Like!
Coming LIFE AS WE KNOW IT. Romantic comedy with Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up) and Josh Duhamel (Transformers) as a mismatched couple thrown together because they are the godparents of a cute toddler who loses her parents. Will they fall for each other? Duh. 112m. Rated PG-13 for sexual material, language and some drug content. Opens…
A New Type of Music
Statistics prove it: People are curious about Esperanza Spalding. After the willowy stand-up bass player with a huge Afro played on PBS’ Austin City Limits earlier this year, she soon became the most searched person on Google. That followed on the heels of a very high profile gig in Oslo late last year: She was…
Desperate Times
Eureka’s proposed new tax — a half-percent sales tax hike that will appear on the Nov. 2 ballot as Measure O — resembles a classic paradox, the one that asks what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. The force, in this case, is nationwide public opposition to new taxes, as exemplified by…
Airing Out Prop. 23
Three weeks ago Dan Ihara of the Center for Environmental Economic Development in Arcata held a house party for opponents to Proposition 23 — called the “California Jobs Initiative” by its proponents and the “Dirty Energy Proposition” by those against it, like Ihara. But only five people showed up to Ihara’s party, one of 80…
Q is for Question
Editor: Heidi Walters can usually be counted on to be fair and balanced in her reports, but her report on the $25.8 million Measure Q school bond gives short shrift to the Humboldt Taxpayer’s League and others’ reasons for opposing it (“Q-ing for Cash,” Sept. 20). The Taxpayer’s League’s rationale is included in the sample…
