Our Fire, Our Fight
A brutal burn season in Klamath country leaves locals grumbling at federal firefighting tactics
Cover Story
Our Fire, Our Fight
I don’t think I’d ever seen Jim Bennett mad before this year’s fires came through his place. And Bennett is no stranger to fire. Before he retired in 1996, he’d worked 32 years as a fireman for the U.S. Forest Service on Salmon River. Fire had burned near his place in 1977. The canyon filled…
Heidi Walters at the Gunderson Trial
Our Heidi Walters was at the Humboldt County Courthouse this morning to hear the verdict in the case against former Blue Lake Police Chief Dave Gunderson. She spoke with Jennifer Savage at KSLG and Mike Dronkers at KHUM, which stations sent us this audio of her report: audio player AudioPlayer.embed(“walters_on_gunderson”, {soundFile: “http://s3.amazonaws.com/NCJ_media_files/walters_on_gunderson.mp3”});
Bomb threat at HSU
Once again — what, the last time was just in May? — the threat of a suspected pipe bomb had Humboldt State University all bound up and tense earlier this evening as men and women huddled in bright vests near the danger zone and others — campus security and campus housing staff hastily stuffed into yet more…
Promise to vote and get a free song
My friend Russ forwarded an e-mail he received today from the band Wilco. They’re offering a free song download in exchange for a simple promise — that you will vote on Nov. 4. They don’t say who you should vote for, but I have my suspicions about who the guys in the band support. Here’s…
Guv signs budget – finally
After an 85 day delay and many compromises Governor Schwarzenegger has signed a budget and California can resume business. Here’s the official announcement from Da Schwarz’ office: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed the 2008-09 state budget, concluding a very difficult budget year and delivering a real win for Californians with a proposal to achieve meaningful…
Fed Judge Issues Injunction against Measure T
This just in from Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Humboldt Coalition for Community Rights: SAN FRANCISCO – Federal Court judge Susan Illston ruled against the people of Humboldt County in yesterday’s hearing on Measure T, the local law passed in 2006 by citizen’s initiative. Measure T bans non-local corporate contributions in local elections. The Pacific Legal Foundation sought…
Live Blogging from Blogger’s Picnic!
We’re down here in Rio Dell at the Blogger’s Picnic , and since the city is famously wireless , we’ve managed to find a hot spot for live blogging. Heraldo showed up in full chef regalia and has fired up his very cool grill to cook up some gourmet dogs: Heraldo's hemi-powered grill Meanwhile Carson…
Also For Your Consideration
So you’re already out there supporting the home team in various online competitions and such. While you’re at it, why not lend a hand to USC linebacker (and Eureka native) Rey Maualuga? Over at this page , a sponsor of the Heisman Trophy ceremonies is selling off its Heisman vote to the highest bidder, Internet-poll-style.…
Miss High Times?
Princess Shauna A section in this week’s e-mail edition of the Reggae Festival Guide provides a link to a webpage where you can cast a vote for a local 18-year-old, Shauna Jiselle, aka Princess Shauna, to become Miss High Times . RFG notes, If she earns enough votes to make her a finalist, she will…
I Think My Older Brother Used to Listen to Lagwagon
When I first heard the album Trashed in high school, there was something so familiar, so honest, so inspired about Lagwagon’s music that they instantly became my favorite band. It’s surprising to say, but almost 15 years (and five albums) later, they still are. As the title suggests, their newest (half) album, I Think My…
The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America
Popular pundits of the left have not been silent comparing the actions of the Bush administration to the actions of Nazi Germany. Parallels and comparisons are one thing; Jim Marrs goes further with claims that Nazis have infiltrated the U.S. at every level of government. Combining revisionist history with careful research, the author offers a…
Third Friday McKinleyville Arts Night
Presented by members of the McKinleyville business community. Receptions for artists, exhibits and/or performances are from 6-8 p.m. on the third Friday of each month. Phone 834-6460 for more information. 1. The Front Gallery and Gifts 1181 Central Ave. Jonathan Robertson, bronze sculptures; old-time country, bluegrass and rock music by Ricky B. and Friends.…
On the Cheap
While I’ve found that cheese-mongering is full of life’s rich delights, sadly it is not making me rich — not with the rent I’m paying. In my new state of horrifying, dizzying penury, I have been investigating all the possible dishes one can make with canned food, and on the cheap. That might mean a…
Summer Slowly Fades
Summer slowly fades gives up duly earned light,…
The Farthest Object
Looking at the Andromeda galaxy is looking back in time to when Lucy and her forebears roamed the highlands of present-day Ethiopia, making it the farthest object we can see with the naked eye. It consists of a trillion or so stars, the twin to our own Milky Way galaxy, separated from us by a…
The Change is Gonna Come
On Aug. 28, 1963, I was one of more than a quarter of a million people in the now-famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I was 17, and as magical as that day was, I recall that it was very controversial. On Aug. 28, 2008, I watched an African American accepting the Democratic…
Macho-A-Go-Go
Previews Woody Allen fans (I’m one) can rejoice as Vicky Cristina Barcelona opens Friday, Sept. 19. Starring Woody’s latest favorite Scarlett Johansson along with Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson, the film involves a quadrangle between two vacationing women friends (Johansson and Clarkson), a painter (Bardem) and his ex (Cruz). Lucky guy. Rated PG-13…
Invasion of the Auger!
The ugly little creature has more than one alias. In some places they call it the “auger beetle,” because it bores into wood like an auger. It’s also called the “false powder post beetle,” because it acts like a similar critter that leaves a pile of powdery sawdust outside the hole it drills. And it’s…
St. Joe’s Says No
Eureka physician Lee Leer about had a conniption recently when he heard through the grapevine that St. Joseph’s Health System was going to ban condoms. St. Joe’s, Leer heard, had phoned Six Rivers Planned Parenthood to tell it not to bring condoms and birth control educational materials to the hospital’s future community health fairs. (The…
Brothers
It was one of our first dates, a night at the Old Town Bar and Grill where we danced to music by a band of Mardi Gras Indians. The Wild Tchoupitoulas, led by Big Chief Jolly, aka George Landry, sang the battle songs of his New Orleans “tribe,” backed by a band of brothers, his…
Disappointing Drills
Remember last year when those guys were driving and helicoptering all over the Eel River Valley with dynamite and cables to test the geologic underworld for its natural gas potential? And how they were telling people — Eel River Valley people whose property they wanted to do the seismic testing on, or whose mineral rights…
Pay Dirt
Over the weekend, the American economy fell deeper and deeper into what many were calling its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Another major Wall Street investment bank failed; yet another was rescued at cents on the dollar. Everyone turned to look at the insurance sector, watching for the next big collapses there. Venerable…
The Other Candidates for President
The most exciting experience you can have as a voter is the write-in. It’s the only opportunity in the entire electoral process when you can actually call a shot. You get to customize your ballot. Maybe you’ll be taken off to the side and led to a small table, people in line wondering what you…
Fast Forward
Editor: While it may be easy to cast “The Sonoma Gang” in a negative light, it becomes a little more awkward to realize that any modern non-Native American who has a stake in this society must be a beneficiary of such things (“The Sonoma Gang,” Sept. 11). Unfortunately, the majority of our culture’s customs are…
Junk + Art + Retail
The other day I drove by a telephone pole that had about a dozen signs advertising yard sales stapled on it — and that was just one pole. These days, when you go to take your cast-offs to the thrift store, they often have a sign out saying they are not accepting drop-off donations; you…
Those Damned Mexicans
Editor: So sorry to see the usually reliable Hank Sims degenerate into a cursing, bitching partisan on the issue of illegal immigration and the enforcement action at the bulb farms (“Town Dandy,” Sept. 11). As demonstrated in a statewide referendum (Prop. 187), and every opinion poll ever taken, the public does not support the open…
Letter Home
The concept of “home” has been a recurring theme in song, literature and art. It conjures up the literal, physical structure, the metaphorical and one’s history. Resident singer/songwriter Lila Nelson uses the various forms of “home,” telling an eclectic assortment of stories in song, for her excellent new record, Letter Home. Nelson displays her gift…
See the Slaughter
Editor: Thank you for the article on Wild Chick Farm, which hopefully encouraged people to consider the oft-overlooked fact that the consumption of meat and animal products is based on the daily slaughter and evisceration of sentient beings (“Table Talk,” Sept. 11). May I suggest that everybody who bases his or her diet on such…
