Piecemeal Transparency
Most cops have cameras but who gets to see the footage remains murky
Cover Story
Piecemeal Transparency
When Arcata police officers Matthew O’Donovan and Don Arminio pulled into the Shell gas station on the corner of 14th and G streets at about 6:45 p.m. on May 17, the cameras in their patrol cars were rolling. Under a cloudless early evening sky, the cameras caught everything that reportedly followed: The suspect, 26-year-old Joshua…
Grand Jury Blasts County Procurement Process
On Wednesday the Humboldt County civil grand jury came out with another startling report: The county is not adequately tracking how millions of dollars in contracts are being spent. The report alleges a lack of accountability, lack of transparency, lack of consistent terminology and a lack of oversight. Over the last decade, an increasing number…
Missing New Zealand Man Confirmed Dead in Possible Drowning
The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has confirmed that a body found near the Mad River Boat Ramp at 9:20 a.m. today was that of Lester Abbey, who went missing yesterday after leaving for an evening jog. Abbey’s body was retrieved by a Coast Guard Helicopter. The New Zealand man was visiting family in McKinleyville, and…
Party for the Parks
The former log deck of the California Redwood Company located just north of Orick, once covered with stacks of huge old-growth redwood logs, was filled on Sunday with the vehicles of visitors arriving for the 2016 National Park Service’s Centennial Celebration in the Redwoods. Activities included horseback riding, hiking to the nearby Centennial Tree, storytelling,…
Bayside Man Killed in Early Morning Crash
A 37-year-old Bayside man was killed early this morning in a single car accident in McKinleyville. Dahmay Shiday was driving his gray 2006 Subaru westbound on Murray Road in McKinleyville at about 2 a.m. at a high rate of speed when he attempted to turn right onto the northbound U.S. Highway 101 on-ramp and lost…
HumBug: Water Babies
One of the most remarkable things about many insects is their ability to completely change their lifestyles through the process of metamorphosis. Like us, the most primitive insects start out as small copies of their adult parents. Their lifestyle will be the same throughout their entire lives as to where they live, what they eat…
Rat Infestation Leads to Finger Pointing as Ray’s Leaves Hoopa
A rodent infestation and a nasty public spat over who’s at fault have combined to close the Hoopa Valley’s only grocery store. The problem first crept into public view last week, after numerous complaints to Humboldt County Environmental Health Services regarding a large rat infestation at Ray’s Food Place that left rat droppings, gnawed products…
Tribes Threaten Lawsuit Over Klamath Flows
The Karuk and Yurok tribes have both put the federal government on notice that they intend to sue, alleging the feds have violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to ensure adequate water flows for Coho salmon on the Klamath River. Citing a disease infection rate of 90 percent for juvenile salmon last year, spurred…
#Eureka24HR: A Day in the Life
Remember #Arcata24HR? It was the project undertaken by local photographer León Villagómez and brought to you in the pages of the Journal last year in which he spent 24 straight hours traversing Arcata and photographing its sights. Well, Villagómez is at it again, this time wanting to capture all Eureka has to offer. He’ll begin…
Appellate Court Hears Police Video Arguments
Can police videos recorded on body-worn and patrol car dash cameras by considered confidential police officer personnel records and hidden from public view? That’s the question three justices with the California First Appellate District spent about a half an hour wrestling with in a San Francisco courtroom Thursday. It was clear from their questions that…
Fried Chicken for the Soul
Everything’s better over a plate of hot, delicious food, isn’t it? Strangers become friends around the table. Barriers melt away like pats of butter on warm, squares of golden cornbread. Breaking bread is a healing act and definitely what the world needs now. Join the Eureka Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of…
#Eureka24hr
Keep checking back, as we’ll be adding new images from Léon’s #Eureka24hr photo project over the next 24 hours (on 6/25/16). You an also follow Léon on Instagram (@leonvillagomez) and Twitter (@leonfelipevc) as he posts. [View the story “#Eureka24Hr” on Storify] Related Stories
Taking A Stand by Sitting Down: Jared Huffman Takes the Floor
Congressman Jared Huffman is “standing strong,” reported his communications director Alexa Schaffer from Washington this morning. Of course, Huffman is not actually standing, but sitting, on the House chamber floor along with about a dozen other congressional Democrats, to make a point about gun violence. The sit-in commenced yesterday morning, with around 168 House members…
Step Right Up
The season of the fair — with fried-food smells, swirling rides and blue-ribbon goods — is here. The Best of Humboldt Fair, the first of the summer, spins its Ferris wheel high in the sky and welcomes families through the gates at Redwood Acres Fairgrounds June 23 through June 26 for four days of arts,…
Most Likely to Succeed
Reviews Here begins the section describing the rationale (rationalization?) behind skipping Finding Dory. The exigencies of a weekend entertaining family-in-law, which included the oyster festival, a Crabs game and the consumption of multiple meals together per day, coupled with one’s own filial piety, create a weekend all but devoid of viable movie-going hours. Still, it…
The River and the Serpent
The Big Thirst It’s been said that water is today’s oil/gold/your choice of valuable commodity. Water is a lot simpler — and a lot more complicated — than that. It may be just endlessly recycled dinosaur pee, but it’s also integral to the web of life — something we’ve become all too aware of in…
Just Holler, ‘Pull!’
The sun is shining as I tuck my Subaru into the row of jumbo pick-up trucks inhabiting the parking lot of the Humboldt Trap and Skeet Range. A distant slice of ocean reclines beyond the airport runway, and the noisy crack of shots fired smacks against the mountains that hem McKinleyville to the coast. Staffed…
Eaten Alive
Scary Scenarios If you like the Alien movies, you’ll love the solitary wasp. Take one of my favorites, Eumenes, the potter wasp. She flies up and down tiny branches, diligently seeking small caterpillars. When she finds one, she darts down, grabs it and paralyzes it with a sting. Once it’s immobilized, she takes it to…
Thanks for the Support
Editor: I want to thank all of my friends and supporters for voting for me (NCJ Daily, June 9). It means a lot when your friends have such confidence in you. I am proud of the fact that I spent no money in trying to get elected. Money puts the “mock” in democracy. I will…
Fighting Big Tobacco
Editor: Last March, members of United Indian Health Services’ Teen Advisory Group (TAG) from Humboldt and Del Norte areas traveled to the state capital to meet with Sen. Mike McGuire. There, we discussed the ethical problems of marketing e-cigarettes to youth, the need to classify e-cigarettes as a tobacco product, and the myth of e-cigarettes…
The Curious Case of Parcel 106-101-054
Nine acres isn’t much when it comes to agricultural land. It’s big enough for a barn and a couple of cows. For many years, this particular parcel, tucked away off of Grizzly Bluff Road in Ferndale, sat on the market uncourted. The owners, Sally and Milton Conley, bought it for $250,000 shortly before the 2009…
Big Brands
Microsoft made some tech industry-sized waves this week with the announcement that it’s diving into the marijuana business. Before you get too excited, don’t expect to find any Windows 10 Kush in your next purchase of Microsoft Office. Nonetheless, the $290 billion multinational “broke the corporate taboo on pot,” as the New York Times put…
Of Leaves, Dew, Me and You
There are lifelines on the faces of leaves tiny lacy lines of clear and flowing life life that has no major meaning; so it leans easily into the moment of itself soft green self without a need to be seen soft and lacy self without seeds bejeweled with beads of dew. It is the…
Humboldt Played
By the time you read this you will hopefully have had enough time to deal with your grief over the Golden State Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead and giving the Cavaliers NBA Championship. It was painful for many of us up here on the North Coast, as we’re only 280-something miles away from Oakland, so…
Champion Oysters
Out on the Arcata Plaza, the crowd was swelling and soaking up sunshine, beer and melted butter from half shells. Just inside the window of Mazzotti’s, however, we 14 judges sat tapping our cocktail forks. Some had skipped breakfast or subsisted on salads the day before in preparation for Caligulan gluttony, but the shellfish was…
