Cover Stories
Pride in Full Stride
On the heels of Pride celebrations in Eureka and Redway earlier this month, Lost Coast Pride’s celebration of the LGBTQ+ community stretched out over the weekend of June 24 and 25. Saturday’s festivities began at the Arcata Plaza, where a modest caravan of decorated vehicles took off, horns honking, headed to Fortuna’s Rohner Park. There,…
Party Rocking
The art of the playlist is a lot like conversation, there’s a flow state that wants to be achieved by the unconscious mind for the benefit of the collective whole. When choosing our songs, we are likewise choosing our words and tailoring them as best as we can for the context of the desired exchange.…
Music Today: Sunday, July 9
We’re properly into the month of July, which means those of us lucky and local enough to stay through the warm months have some OG milestones to recapture and celebrate. Chief among them is Annie and Mary Day, Blue Lake’s tribute to a pair of bookkeepers who worked for the Arcata Mad River Rail Line…
Music Tonight: Saturday, July 8
As I mentioned in my dual record review (page 16), the good people in Wild Abandon are putting on a shindig at Humbrews tonight to showcase their second album Character Study. Along for the ride are rising local pop stars The California Poppies, as well as DJs Bumblecrow and Choppa Whoppa. Starting time is 8…
Music Tonight: Friday, July 7
Bonny Doon is a trio that originally hails from Detroit but has since spread its members across the lower 48, from New York City to California. As is the case with many acts booked at the Miniplex, the band has a ton of DIY folk and country cred, having stretched out beyond its own considerable…
Music Tonight: Thursday, July 6
The Siren’s Song Tavern is hosting an alternative rock night at 7:30 p.m. Frequency Within is a touring act from SoCal, while local heavies Drastic Gnarlys anchor things down in the 707. I don’t know the door charge as of press time, but if you leave the house with $20, you should be able to…
Remains Recovered from Trinity River in Hoopa
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reports unidentified remains were recovered from the Trinity River in Hoopa yesterday after being spotted by a community member in the Ferris Riffle area. According to a news release, the call came in at 1:46 p.m., with deputies and a deputy coroner responding to the scene, where a community member…
Eureka’s Fourth of July Party Plan
Eureka Main Street’s celebration is set to fill the streets of Old Town today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Weave through the vendors, bubbles, fire trucks and people you haven’t run into in forever, and you can find speeder car rides from First and E streets, and horse-drawn carriage rides at the gazebo. There’ll…
Sheriff’s Office Searching for Shooting Suspect
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a 26-year-old suspect in a fatal McKinleyville shooting last night. Police were called to a home in the 2200 block of Silverbrook Court around 5:25 p.m. and arrived to find a man dead of a gunshot wound out front, according to a press release. Deputies were reportedly…
UPDATE: Arcata Police ID Homicide Victim
UPDATE: The Arcata Police Department has identified the shooting victim as Joshua Paul Gephart, 36, of Fortuna, who had been living in the Valley West area of Arcata, according to a press release. PREVIUOSLY: The Arcata Police Department is investigating a homicide that occurred early yesterday morning, leaving a 36-year-old Fortuna man shot dead. The…
CenterArts Announces First Installment of 2023-2024 Season
CenterArts dropped the list of its first installment of acts coming to the area for the 2023-2024 season. Highlights include Sylvan Esso, recent Grammy winner Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Mariachi Herencia de México and Tommy Emmanuel. See the full list of who’s headed to town in the press release below, then grab your calendars and make your plans.…
Photos: First Market Night of the Summer
The Friday Night Market scene was in full swing for its return to the streets of Old Town Eureka. The streets were filled with music, food, vendor booths, some fire dancing and faces new and old. The golden hour get togethers will keep going through October 27. Photographer Kait Angus was there to mingling with…
Jasper Randall Amir: 1992-2023
On March 31, 2023, Jasper Randall Amir died unexpectedly in Salt Lake City, Utah. Born and raised in his beloved Fieldbrook, California, Jasper was 30 years old. In his lifetime Jasper gave his parents, Madelin Amir and Tom Pexton, a lot to be proud of. After graduating from Fieldbrook Elementary, Jasper went to McKinleyville High…
Ferndale Pride, Otters and Trouble at the Fair
We’re closing out Pride Month with a look back at Ferndale’s march and celebration. And could sea otters make a comeback on the North Coast? We’ll talk about proposed introduction. Another hurdle for Humboldt County Fair horse racing: Quake damage has left the fairgrounds grandstands unsafe and now the fair board is looking for solutions.…
Cal State System Proposes Regular Tuition Hikes to Forestall Budget Gap
Multiple years of tuition increases are likely heading to California State University students as the 23-campus system seeks desperately needed cash to afford its academic mission. The institution on Thursday published its proposal to begin raising undergraduate and graduate school tuition by 6 percent annually starting in the fall 2024 academic year. For undergraduates, that…
Troubled Nursing Home Chain Owner Shlomo Rechnitz Gets New Licenses Just Before State Reforms Take Effect
The state is moving forward with licensing two dozen nursing homes whose primary owner’s companies have a lengthy track record of problems – as uncovered by a CalMatters investigation – despite a new law designed to provide better oversight of the facilities. The nursing homes in question are owned by Los Angeles businessman Shlomo Rechnitz,…
The American Dipper’s Life Aquatic
After a heck of a winter, it’s summer at last. Now’s the time to patch your roof, plant your garden (if you already have, you’re way ahead of me) and explore Humboldt’s diverse landscapes. Throughout the county, hidden gems await those of all abilities, whether at the end of an arduous hike or just up…
No Hard Feelings‘ Rom-com Chops
NO HARD FEELINGS. Within the ever-deepening river of pan-cultural division, there are convoluted, often contradictory undercurrents too numerous to parse. In this new age of (dis)information, some of these knotty notions see more frequent, if less substantive, discussion than they might have in decades past. But for all the pointing and yelling, precious few reach…
Foul Ball
If you’re a baseball fan (not a sports fan, a baseball fan) imagine trying to explain to your 10-year-old self that you should be happy because Major League Baseball figured out a way to guarantee you could spend less time at the ballpark. You’d give yourself the finger and speed away on your Schwinn (probably…
‘Succinct Inc.’
Editor: Elaine Weinreb did an excellent job distilling the rather complex issue of would McKinleyville be better off incorporated as a city (“McKinleyville, Inc.?” June 22, 2023). The economic data supporting the issue is missing, and there may well be other motivating factors as well. I may be a bystander living in Eureka, but I…
‘Creature Discomfort’
Editor: I just returned home from the first day of the Redwood Acres 2023 fair. I wish I could say it was a wonderful experience. The vendors placed the camel ride next to the Orbitor ride that has a gigantic speaker continuously blasting music. I called the Redwood Acres Fairgrounds office and spoke with Mick, the CEO. Mick told…
‘Unrealistic’
Editor: It’s a real shame that there are people in our community who are so fearful and/or hateful of others that they feel compelled to vandalize a community garden repeatedly “After Nearly a Year of Vandalism, Centro Del Pueblo Calls for City Council to Protect Arcata Sanctuary Garden,” June 13, 2023). However, I am perplexed…
Dall’s Porpoise
My Michael beat up a motorcycle gang unnecessarily. So, I grounded him, and I’m writing his Washed Up column this month. It’s a story about a loving mommy and the precious baby she lost. Early one summer, we found a baby Dall’s porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) washed up dead on the beach. Because my Michael is…
Fifth Street Shuffle
After years of papered over windows, the spot at 621 Fifth St. in Eureka where the former Banana Hut’s palm fans once waved from the ceiling is open again. Once inside, look up and you’ll see the namesake vintage stove hood — roughly the size of a pickup truck bed — suspended over the host…
A Turning Part IV
The daily bread, Given on this day, Cast in poppies And blooming blackberry corners, Everything sprawled and covered. Just over the hill, Nights feed on themselves: Fickle contests of fading light And crickets. Here, the din of thrush, Trickles of water, And a last, hushing turn of leaves On a vanishing breeze, Where doors open…
USFW Taking First Steps in Possible Reintroduction of Sea Otters
At an open house hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to gather input on the possible reintroduction of sea otters to parts of their historical range from the Bay Area to Oregon, a phrase repeated often was the process was still “on the ground floor.” The informal Sunday event on the Cal Poly…
First Saturday Night Arts Alive
Our galleries, museums, theaters, bars and restaurants are open late. Presented by Eureka Main Street. ART CENTER FRAME SHOP 616 Second St. Lauren Lester, watercolor landscapes and portraits. ART CENTER SPACE 620 Second St. Work by more than 75 local artists. BELLE STARR CLOTHING 405 Second St. “Adore and Joy,” pop-up permanent jewelry shop. BLUE…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Visionary author Peter McWilliams wrote, “One of the most enjoyable aspects of solitude is doing what you want when you want to do it, with the absolute freedom to change what you’re doing at will. Solitude removes all the ‘negotiating’ we need to do when we’re with others.” I’ll add a…
Close to Wilderness
It took the death of a friend for Lindsay Lacewell Kessner, whose show Humboldt County Lost and Found is at the Morris Graves Museum of Art through Aug. 6, to realize “life is too short for mediocrity.” Kessner was 26 at the time, living in Chicago and coasting along working as a nanny, when a…
Pacific Halibut Fly Over the Rails
A nice long stretch of fishable weather provided some pretty good Pacific halibut action from Eureka up to Crescent City. Private, and especially charter boats, have been putting a lickin’ on the halibut since last weekend. There were plenty of days where boats were back in port well inside of 10 a.m. with a box…
