UPDATE: Bomb Squad Investigating ‘Suspicious Object,’ Second Call in Two Days
UPDATE: Deputies have cleared the scene at Parkwood Boulevard. A Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office release stated there is no “perceived threat to the public at this time.” However, there were “explosive material” in the “suspicious device.” “Utilizing an EOD robot, deputies determined the suspicious device to contain explosive materials,” the release states. “Deputies then rendered…
Eureka Police Release Descriptions of Trucks Sought in Fatal Hit and Run
The Eureka Police Department released new information today about two vehicles believed to have been involved in a Dec. 15 fatal hit and run on Broadway south of 14th Street. According to EPD, witnesses said Ashley Madonia, 36, was hit as she walked outside of the crosswalk around 8 p.m. Officers who arrived on scene…
Eureka, There’s a New City Manager in Town
Dean Lotter will be sworn in tonight as Eureka’s new city manager, the latest in a series of milestones for him in recent weeks, including moving into a new home here in town with his wife Wendy and their rescue dog Queso, as well as celebrating his 50th birthday. Hailing from the Midwest, Lotter comes…
SECOND UPDATE: All Clear Given After Explosive Ordnance Team Investigates Suspicious Package in McKinleyville
SECOND UPDATE: A postal worker reported the package, which was sitting under a stop sign inside a white plastic bag, just before 1 p.m. After advising local residents to stay indoors, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team was able to X-ray the item using a robot and determined there was no threat. “The Humboldt County Sheriff’s…
North Coast Night Lights: Vacancy at 4th & E Streets, Eureka
For years, driving by, I would see her lonely figure sitting on the bench. I never stopped, but in time I grew used to her presence there and I would look to touch base visually when I passed. Huddled inward and completely covered, she had erected a shell between herself and the outside world, perhaps…
SECOND UPDATE: ‘Everyone is Doing Well,’ Boat Owner Says After Coasties Respond to Distressed Vessel
SECOND UPDATE: A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew used “direction-finding radio” to locate debris from a sinking boat after receiving a distress call Sunday evening that guided rescuers to fishermen who had made it to a beach in their survival gear using a life raft, according to a press release. Due to a head injury,…
HSU Wildlife Professor and Arcata Marsh Pioneer Stanley “Doc” Harris Dies at 91
Stanley “Doc” Harris, a retired Humboldt State University wildlife professor, passed away Dec. 27. He was 91 years old. In addition to having inspired thousands of students, Harris helped establish Arcata’s wastewater facility as a wildlife sanctuary and shared his love of ornithology with birdwatching hobbyists in the North Coast. Harris ,who worked as a professor…
No War With Iran Protest (Photos)
A couple dozen people turned up at the Humboldt County Courthouse on Friday evening, most carrying signs, for a hastily planned protest of the prospect of a U.S. war with Iran. The protest followed the Jan. 2 U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard…
Marcelli’s Serves its Last Dinner
Marcelli’s Italian Restaurant, the mom and pop joint run by the family that’s been making ravioli in Eureka for 90 years, will close for good after tonight’s dinner service. The ravioli will still be made in the back and shipped to stores for at least a little while, but the Marcelli family has no comment…
The Biggest Wave and Bomb Cyclone: A Record-Breaking Year of Wild Weather
Looking back at 2019 from a weather standpoint, things were a bit on the wild side at times. So, the Journal reached out to climate specialist Matthew Kidwell in the Eureka office of the National Weather Service, who compiled what he saw as the most notable weather incidents to take place last year. Along with…
North Coast Night Lights: 2019 Night Light in Review
We live in the Milky Way galaxy. It’s a flattened pinwheel shape, and our solar system is out on one of the arms. Our galaxy gets its name from the bright band of stars called the Milky Way, which we can see stretching across the night sky. The band is an edge-on view of our…
Eagerly Anticipated’
Editor: Barry Evans’ Field Notes are eagerly anticipated and thoroughly appreciated whenever they appear. His most recent (“Evolution Isn’t Progress,” Dec 18) overview of processes of evolution was concisely organized and delivered some valuable insights. How easily that phrase “survival of the fittest” now rolls off our tongues. However, Darwin carefully described selection as the…
‘Witch-hunty’ Cartoon
Editor: Hey NCJ! Thanks for the cool calendar (Dec. 26)! Didn’t have one yet. No thanks for the be witch-hunty, pro-vax cartoon (Cartoons, Dec. 26). Most anti-vaxxers I know have long since known that this study was discredited. It’s the vaxxers that bring it up. Old news. Some questions remain, however, like, what exactly am…
Let’s Come Together
Editor: Brothers and sisters, regardless of the enormous difference in how we perceive the world around us, I refuse to see any of you as my enemy (“The Top 10 Stories of 2019,” Dec. 26). You and I, I’m certain, feel the same delight in a beautiful sunrise, a flower or the innocent laughter of…
Best of the Bugs
After almost five years doing a weekly blog it had to happen. With rainy, cold weather and the fact that over the last several years I’ve already written about most of the noteworthy entomological subjects hereabouts, this week I didn’t see any new critters worth photographing or writing about. So I think I’ll do what…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “We are all hostages of the joy of which we deprive ourselves,” wrote poet Odysseus Elytis. Isn’t that an astounding idea? That we refuse to allow ourselves to experience some of the bliss and pleasure we could easily have; and that we are immured inside that suppressed bliss and pleasure? I…
‘Move the Decimal Point’
It was the day after Christmas in 2008 and Robert Lohn was headed to Gottschalks at the Bayshore Mall to return his grandsons’ presents, a pair of remote control helicopters he’d bought for $130. “I wanted to play with them, that’s why I bought them. They didn’t have toys like that when I was growing…
New Laws with New Protections Ring in the New Year
With the new year come new laws and 2020 has a bevy of changes going into effect on everything from California’s minimum wage and the classification of independent contractors to protections for nursing mothers and a ban on smoking at state parks and beaches. Here’s a glance at a few of the ones that may…
Time Zone Twenty Twenty
This is going to be brief because we are still in the lean days of the winter break. But even though I am writing in the last days of 2019, I would like to wish you all a hearty welcome to 2020. All of those twos and zeros seem pretty futuristic, don’t they? Well the…
What’s Good Roundup
Cocina on the Green The incongruity of a Mexican restaurant on the grounds of a golf course lessens as you sit in a snug window booth at Cocina Mariposa (4750 Fairway Drive, Eureka), which you enter via the pro shop, and watch the sunset. On a recent rainy evening, when a lone golfer was whacking…
Arts Alive!
Presented by Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and performances are held the first Saturday of each month. For more information, call 442-9054 or go to www.eurekamainstreet.org 707 BAR First and C streets. Barry Evans photography. Music by Dr. Squid. A TASTE OF BIM 613 Third St. Maggie Draper, artwork. ADORNI CENTER 1011…
Diamonds in the Rough
Reviews UNCUT GEMS. New York City represents much of what is fascinating, romantic and terrible about the American experiment. At least to a soft, rural-raised Left Coast boy, the city is all teeth, knives and broken glass, scrutiny and anonymity at once — paranoia as landscape. And the brothers Safdie, Benny and Josh, have recently…
New Laws and Greening the Senate
If you spent New Year’s Eve rolling around town smoking joints in the back of a party bus, you may have had a rude awakening after the clock struck midnight. While state law has always prohibited drivers and passengers in cars from smoking cannabis, puffing vape pens or any other form of imbibing, Senate Bill…
What Now?
Editor: Our board of supervisors recently voted down a renewable energy project (“Supes Deny Controversial Wind Project,” Dec. 19). The final Environmental Impact Report for the project showed that, taking into account carbon debt from cutting trees and construction, the anticipated savings would have been about 34 thousand metric tons (kMT) of CO2 per year.…
