Probing Tools
St. Joseph in legal limbo while Medicare investigates ‘unsanitary practices’
Cover Story
Probing Tools
St. Joseph Hospital is working feverishly to get Medicare to rescind an unpublicized order, issued in December, that could cut off vital federal payments unless the hospital proves that it has corrected “systemic” infection control flaws, including the improper cleaning of two diagnostic tools used on patients. The Journal has brought this hush-hush scrutiny to…
Tsunami Warning Downgraded, Governor Declares State of Emergency (4:20 p.m. update)
UPDATE 4:20 p.m. Governor Brown Declares State of Emergency in Del Norte, Humboldt, San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties SACRAMENTO – Governor Jerry Brown today issued an emergency proclamation for Del Norte, Humboldt, San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties following the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan, which generated a water…
Tsunami Message No. 13 – 9:47 AM
TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 13 from the National Weather Service: NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK – 9:47 AM PST FRI MAR 11 2011 …THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM POINT CONCEPCION CALIFORNIA TO THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER… MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI ACTIVITY LOCATION LAT LON …
Schools Close While Awaiting Tsunami
According to the Humboldt County Office of Education most Humboldt County schools have elected to close today due to the tsunami warning. The list shows no response from Bridgeville and Kneeland schools, officials assume this is probably because they were scheduled to attend a Math Fair today at Arcata High, which has been cancelled. Here’s…
Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex
On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his final televised address from the Oval Office, notoriously warning, “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Although his critique was not extensively understood at the time, the term “military-industrial complex,” a reference to the mutual…
MLPA: Pro and Con
Editor: Pursuant to your March 3 article, the new Marine Protected Areas in Southern California and the North Central Coast are null, void and unenforceable, because they were created by an illegal and corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process. In a 55-page petition filed Jan. 27 in San Diego Superior Court, United Anglers of…
Golden
Psst… remember that heist you were planning? You know, the one where you and 10 associates go to elaborate lengths to stylishly infiltrate the money vault at Blue Lake Casino while simultaneously exchanging wit-filled, Hollywood-caliber dialogue? Remember? You had the entire scheme synchronized down to the millisecond. It was good enough to be a movie!…
Tricky
The Trickster is a classic character in myth and folklore around the world, often an anthropomorphic animal who deviates from social norms, an antiestablishment type tweaking the powers that be one way or another with mixed results. In African American folktales from the South he might be a rabbit, with Joel Chandler Harris’ Brer Rabbit…
Arts! Arcata
All Under Heaven 735 8th St. Augustus Clark, A Show of Natural Wonders & Beautiful Ideas, paintings. Arcata Artisans Cooperative 883 H St. Gilbert Castro, ceramics and silver jewelry; Jeff Langdon, photographs and mixed media art; Mike Edwards, fine jewelry in gold and silver. Arcata Main Street 791 8th St # 14. Tony Gonzales, photographs. …
Local Olives and Chicken Killers
Well, Humboldtians, I am just bursting at the seams with thrilling foodiness. We’ll start with our stalwart olive-maker friend, Henry Robertson, who has new additions to his usual smorgasbord of delicious unctuousness. His latest olives come from the Winnett Vineyards, a small organic winery and olivery in Willow Creek. The eventual plan is to make…
Mutt Meet
Rumor has it, dog ownership can lead to one of the most rewarding relationships you’ll have in your lifetime. But let’s face it: When searching for that perfect canine to call your own, finding “man’s best friend” is the best-case scenario. Poor suckers who don’t do their due diligence may find their carpets changing colors,…
Why Waterfalls?
Louisa and I were admiring Cascada Borrones, the third highest waterfall in South America, near San Agustin in southern Colombia. “What exactly causes it to form?” she asked. “Um … differential erosion,” I replied, trying to summon an image from, if not eons ago, a long time past. Geology 101, University of London, 1960. The…
Beg Your Pardon
Editor: Far be it for me to question the authority of one of my favorite local heroes, Barry Evans, and yet the truth compels me to do so. In his otherwise outstanding article on the Winter Hexagon (“Field Notes,” Mar. 6), Barry maintains that the star Regulus, in the constellation Leo (The Lion) marks Leo’s…
Beneficent
Whole lotta fundraising going on this weekend. We’ll start with Saturday at the Mateel where the venerable local country band The Roadmasters play a benefit for the Redwood Run with help from the SoHum Western rock combo The Kent Stephenson Band. Now this might be confusing for some. After all, last June Redwood Run organizers…
Muddling Through
Unemployment is up, incomes are low, and poverty levels are high — but local experts suggest that the recession in Humboldt could have been worse — and maybe it isn’t even that bad. Dennis Mullins is a research analyst at the Labor Market Information Division in Eureka. “There’s kind of a sense that things are…
Stay Home and Adjust Yourself
Reviews:TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT. Essentially another retelling of the “last big party of the season” teen flick, Take Me Home Tonight centers on Matt Franklin (Topher Grace), a nerdy high-school outcast/math genius/recent M.I.T graduate in the summer following commencement. Having taken a job slinging VHS tapes at the mall, he’s foundering, without any notion of…
Sneaker Savvy
On Jan. 21, a beautifully sunny day, two women from Red Bluff were walking on the beach at Dry Lagoon with their three dogs when a wave swept up and pulled them into the ocean. Jamie Dickison, 27, and two of the dogs survived. Dickison’s spouse, Veronica “Vee” Dickison, 29, and her dachshund, Fyn, did…
Fishing
The parti-colored fish hangs suspended, motionless, above the…
Thinking Globally
We live in interesting times. That subtle curse describes so well how families and governments everywhere are struggling to cope with the Great Recession that was ushered in a few years back when the world’s largest banks finally had to admit what former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan should have realized back when he was…
March 10-16
March 10. The birthdate, in 1709, of Georg Wilhelm Steller, the man for whom the Steller’s Jay is named. He joined the second expedition of Vitus Jonassen Bering, which was to explore the Siberian coast and the west coast of North America. A storm and ill health forced Bering to turn back; he perished on…
Notes on Salmon Run
Editor: Thank you for writing about the Eel River and its fall salmon run (“Return of the Salmon?” March 3). There are a few things I’d like to clarify. Instead of being worried that “the big runs will increase pressure to lift fishing restrictions,” I see the potential for more sport fishing access and an…
Is Growing Faith
At first listen, one might mistake White Fence’s new release, Is Growing Faith, for some lost oddball gem from the ‘60s, perhaps in a similar vein to the recordings by the obscure ’60s/’70s psychedelic group Pisces, which the Numero Group record label recently unearthed. Instead the record is the second full-length in less than a year…
It Will Take More
Editor: I write regarding “Return of the Salmon?” in the March 3 Journal. The modest article compelled me to touch on additional problems facing the health of the Eel River watershed presented by Mr. Higgins’ report. More that a mere fish count, Mr. Higgins produced a point-in-time look at many aspects of the river, finding…
