R.I.P. Prop. 19
Nov. 2, 2010
Cover Stories
Yes on Weed, No on 19
“Don’t stop believin'” was the message from Prop. 19 creator Richard Lee of Oakland after the initiative to tax and regulate pot lost by around 540,000 votes — 46 percent to 53 percent — last Tuesday night. About 3.3 million Californians voted for the measure, and 3.9 million didn’t. But Prop. 19 is widely considered…
Don’t Blame Humboldt
Who killed Proposition 19? It’s a question that cannabis legalization proponents will be asking themselves for weeks to come. Was it the Tea Partiers who came out in droves this year? Was it apathetic young voters who stayed away from the polls? Or was it the marijuana-producing counties of Northern California, which feared losing market…
Prop. 19: RIP
Nothing on the Nov. 2 ballot would have affected Humboldt County so profoundly as Proposition 19. Governors and senators come and go, and may, if they are talented and lucky, leave behind a few scratches on the wall. Local elected officials possess the power to regulate land use and development, but their job, apart from…
Where To Now?
Thirty-seven years ago, Californians voted on our first Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana. The 1973 version was two paragraphs long and got 33 percent of the vote. The 2010 version was approximately 15 times as long and got 46 percent of the vote. Is this a trend? Let’s hope not. The complexification of legalization illustrates…
Humboldt County Has Received $121M in Recovery Funds
$121,125,647 to be (more or less) exact. That’s how much of Uncle Sam’s money flowed into Humboldt County between February 17, 2009, and September 30, 2010, as a result of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. And the vast majority of that cheddar has been in the form of grants. If you…
The Eureka Inn Axe Attacker’s Tragic End
Back in 2003, a 29-year-old man named Cody Alan Dwire attacked someone with an axe outside the Eureka Inn. It was pretty startling at the time, as the attack seemed to be random and likely would have been fatal had another man not intervened. Recently, a reader alerted us to the shocking last chapter of Dwire’s…
Google Takes the Road Less Traveled
Plenty of us have spotted the all-seeing Googlemobile rolling through town the last few weeks, stealing the souls of everything in range of its roof-mounted camera orb. And say what you will about Big Brother and privacy and whatnot, I dig Street View. It’s fun being able to virtually wander city streets on six continents.…
Dramatic Rescue Above Agate Beach w/ Update
Photo by Ken Malcomson (Update at bottom of second page) A 19-year-old woman clung to a slippery sandstone cliff about 150 feet above Agate Beach for at least three hours Sunday afternoon as a rescue crew worked its way through a wild section of Patrick’s Point State Park to get to her. The whole while,…
Saturday Night Funnies
• Journal contributor Amy Stewart tells an amusing tale about weed, literature and Eureka Books in tomorrow’s New York Times. • At the Humboldt Herald, Paul Gallegos supporter “Richard” (?!?) declares fatwah on Supervisor Mark Lovelace for the crime of supporting Paul Hagen. You got Geisted!
Looking for a Home
We’ll call it Arcata House Weekend. Back-to-back benefits Friday and Saturday support the local nonprofit that has been providing housing and other services for homeless families for just short of 20 years. On Friday, Nov. 12, Jeff DeMark begins a three-night run of his one-man-show about finding and fixing up a home, They Ate Everything…
Dark Side of the Rainbow
I haven’t watched MTV in years. Mostly because it sucks now. But when I was young and in my prime — oh, let’s say age 14, around ‘96 or so — I was just another young, impressionable member of flannel-clad Alternative Nation. MTV played music videos then. From bands. Times were good, for sure. In…
Hemp Hemp Hooray
As pretty much everyone in Humboldt knows, the hemp plant and its semi-precious flowers are a pretty big deal locally, particularly in the southern part of the county — cause for some trepidation but also repeated celebration including a number of festivals. This weekend’s Humboldt Hemp Festival has a full slate of activities from Friday…
Hazardous to Your Health
If you’re looking to stay alive, Humboldt County is currently the worst possible place in the state to call home. Don’t let the pastoral beauty and laissez-faire lifestyles fool you. Statistically, you’re more likely to die here than if you lived in any other California county. That includes Alameda County, which has the highest murder…
Driving With a Hangover
MORNING GLORY. Cutesy chick flick comedy stars Rachel McAdams as Becky Fuller, a news show producer who signs on to run a last-place network morning show hosted by Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton). Becky hires retired newsman Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) who doesn’t do happy talk and doesn’t like Peck. Directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill)…
Ace in the Hole
There are two major Humboldt County political parties. I call them the “progressives” and the “conservatives,” though I’m more than willing to field other suggestions. Regardless, the salient point of last week’s election was that it was the most lopsided contest since the rise of the progressive vote a decade ago. The conservative sweep of…
Layer Upon Layer
Take driving African rhythms, add in elements of American jazz and funk and bring to slow simmer. Turn the heat up to a rolling boil, add dancers and percolate until everyone sweats. That’s pretty much the recipe for Afrobeat as played by the late, great master from Nigeria, Fela Kuti. His funky grooves have inspired…
Doonesbury and the Art of G.B. Trudeau
This is the mother of all Doonesbury books: a retrospective of the entire Doonesbury era from first glimmers in the Yale student paper to a few panels set in the Obama White House, in a big art book format. An informal but fact-filled historical essay is spread throughout, along with wonderful illustrations that show the…
Fall
Deer trimming pear trees Eye fruit that slowly…
Homelessness and Help
Editor: Thank you for sharing the story of the “Family on the Corner” (Nov. 4). I live and work in this area and I have passed the family many times, wondering what their “story” was. I decided many years ago that giving money doesn’t help people “flyin’ a sign” to change their circumstances. When approached…
Mounqaliba (In a State of Reversal)
International singer and composer Natacha Atlas has long fought being pigeonholed. Her first success came with work as lead vocalist with Transglobal Underground, where Atlas’ voice gave a certain kind of “world” credibility to the fusion of heavy dance-beats and international influences. It’s ironic that when she has attempted to move away from that, edging…
Three at Last!
What do Dale Earnhardt, Britney Spears and Alexandre Dumas have in common? The number “three” would nail it: stock car number, hit song and musketeers. Good luck, we’re told, comes in threes. As does bad luck, along with Wise Men, Cups of Tea and Little Pigs. What is it about Earthlings (inhabiting the third planet…
Arts! Arcata
Arcata Artisans 883 H St. Gilbert Castro, ceramics and silver jewelry; Terri Tinkham, handwoven scarves and “horse” jewelry; Linnea Tobias, paintings and pottery. Arcata City Hall 736 F St. Edmund Metheny, fine photographs. Arcata Exchange 813 H St. Lush Newton and Laura Jones, new works; Sandy and Friends, live music. Bon Boniere 791 8th St.…
Humble Bees
Late in Humble Boy, the play by Charlotte Jones now presented by Redwood Curtain in Eureka, one character goes on for several rapturous minutes reciting the correct Latin names for flowers surrounding him in an English garden. The names come from the science of horticulture, but the Greek name for a collection of flowers was…
A A! is for Apple
Few fruits come close to occupying the place in mythology held by the apple. From the infamous Tree of Knowledge incident to the golden apples used to distract Atalanta in her fateful race, apples have been used to deceive. But they’re also symbols of innocence — behold the apple-cheeked youth, wholesome as apple pie. Slice…
