Spreading the gospel of good fire
Officials bring in artists to aid controlled burn messaging.
Gray Whale Found Washed Up on Agate Beach
A gray whale was discovered washed up on Agate Beach yesterday amid an elevated number of strandings along the west coast of North America this year that has scientists working to uncover the reason for the anomaly. The adult male’s beaching comes about two weeks after a humpback whale that was found entangled in fishing…
Families Suspend Search for Friends Believed Lost in Plane Crash
The families of two friends last seen alive just before the plane they were in took off from Shelter Cove on Oct. 24 have suspended their search. Kayla Rodriguez and Justin Winfrey flew in to Shelter Cove after 7 p.m. that day. According to Cory Green, a resident of the area and a pilot, he…
True North Organizes Fundraiser for Committee Leader to Apply for Residency
If you had walked into Dora Portillo’s house Oct. 17, you would have been welcomed by the smell of fried pork, beans and salsa. She was preparing chicharron (fried pork ground with spices and vegetables) and bean stuffing that would fill hundreds of her homemade pupusas (a Salvadoran food made of corn meal that’s stuffed…
Trick or Treat: Photos from Arcata’s Halloween
Parking was a premium for Trick or Treat on the Plaza in Arcata in late afternoon as easily more than a thousand children and adults showed up for the Halloween fun. The event, sponsored by Arcata Main Street, started off with the HSU Marching Lumberjacks, giant puppets and a bubble machine circling the plaza, followed…
New City Manager, Emergency Declaration on Eureka Agenda
The Eureka City Council will consider Tuesday formally appointing Dean Lotter as city manager, with a $170,000 annual salary and other benefits. Currently the city manager of New Brighton, Minnesota, the council selected Lotter to replace Greg Sparks, who is set to retire next month, from a pool 40 and five finalists who came to Eureka…
UPDATE: One Injured in 101 Crash Involving 2 Trucks, 2 Cars North of Willits
SECOND UPDATE: A multi-vehicle crash that snarled traffic on the U.S. Highway 101 south of Willits for hours Monday left one person with a possible broken wrist but otherwise spared those involved. According to the CHP, the pileup began when a Fortuna resident driving southbound in a Nissan sedan stopped due to a “traffic hazard,”…
HumBug: An Innocent Imposter
Being the local “Bug Guy” I was recently asked about a spider that looked “almost exactly like a black widow,” but lacked the distinctive red hourglass on the underside of its abdomen. This is a spider with which I am very familiar. They were nearly everywhere where I grew up in Pacifica, California. I hadn’t…
Time to Fall Back
Just a reminder to set those clocks that need changing back one hour tonight with daylight saving coming to an end at 2 a.m. Sunday. That means this is also a good time to check out the batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to make sure those devices are working. So, enjoy that extra…
North Coast Night Lights: Lost in Space (Big Dipper over Trinidad)
The planet hung silently in space. A tiny jewel in the blackness, it was a half-lit marble of greens and browns and blues and whites. But it was more than a planet, it was a life-bearing droplet, a little oasis of life journeying in infinite patience in its timeless passage around the sun. Soft moonlight…
State DOJ Denies Proposed St. Joseph, Adventist Health System Merger
The California Department of Justice today denied a proposed partnership between Adventist Health System/West and St. Joseph Health System citing “concerns that it is not in the public interest, has the potential to increase health costs and potentially limits access and availability of health care services,” according to a release. In June, Adventist Health System/West…
A Year’s Work on Life Support
In the midst of harvest season, the Humboldt County Growers Alliance has announced that the county now has the most licensed cannabis businesses of any California county. In fact, an analysis by the alliance found that Humboldt County holds nearly 30 percent of the state’s cultivation licenses and is home to a third of the…
‘Terror-Gen’
Editor: Whether if Halloween was just around the corner or not, I think we could still call the corporation that’s owned by the Energy Capital Partners “Terror-Gen”, as it’s a good representation of the havoc that the company’s 600-foot-tall bird, bat and soil decapitating wind turbines will have on one of Humboldt’s and the West…
‘Lied To’
Editor: First, understand that the Earth’s atmosphere is 98 percent nitrogen and oxygen with nitrogen at four to one over oxygen. Yes, folks, every time you inhale you suck in a whole lot of nitrogen (“Hey Reporters! The Environment is Everything!” Oct. 3). Now then, carbon dioxide (the so-called killer of the climate) is only…
‘Highly Ordered’
Editor: I would like to respond to Barry Evans’ Field Notes headlined “Mirror Universes” (Oct. 24) in which he states that, “You’re more disordered than you were yesterday …” While this may be true in our personal lives as far as biology is concerned, we remain highly ordered day after day. Even though cells are…
Witch/Fossil Hunt!
I apologize in advance to anyone who didn’t want to be transported to this alternate universe just now. But you can relax because the only difference between this new universe and your old one is that I was elected president of the United States in 2016. My presidency started out OK. But then someone noticed…
Spreading the Gospel of Good Fire
It’s been clear for decades that re-thinking fire management in the West is as much art as craft and science, so it’s fitting that the annual prescribed burning training program called TREX, just ending in and around Orleans, invited in a gang of real artists this year to help spread the message. Since its inception…
Humboldt Weathers Blackout, Braces for Another
As this issue of the Journal went to press, most of Humboldt County was emerging from 36 hours of darkness and trying to take advantage of a projected 16 or so hours of electricity before a second consecutive PG&E blackout was expected to hit by 4:30 a.m. Oct. 29. The company cut power to nearly…
William Blake Goes to Hear Parlour Game at the Arcata Playhouse
Without, the land still flows with blood, A likeness of my day: Earth’s creatures moan, in fire and flood And God must look away. But here, my vagrant spirit might Draw in the crystal air And mark, in music’s purest light The toad, the sheep, the hare. This is not my century! Sin’s stain has…
PG&E WTF
I’m hastily typing this out a few days earlier than usual because I’m trying to beat the clock on PG&E’s incoming Saturday power austerity, which I am sure you will have all been heartily inconvenienced by as of press time. I’d like to say that this sort of thing is unexpected and will likely be…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Do you have any skill in fulfilling the wishes and answering the prayers of your allies? Have you developed a capacity to tune in to what people want even when they themselves aren’t sure of what they want? Do you sometimes have a knack for offering just the right gesture at…
A Pirate’s Treasure of Chardonnays
Growing up, “wine” and “chardonnay” were synonymous in my house. The women in my family drank Wente chardonnay like they owned stock in the winery. It was the first wine I remember being allowed a sip of when I was young and it accompanied every family gathering once my mom decided I was old enough…
We’re All Land Artists Now
Moon-shaped pools, underground flows and springs long-buried by sand inspired the poems, paintings and vessels in Jerry Martien and Becky Evans’ new exhibition at Piante Gallery (and the gallery’s final show before closing), Water and Power. Evans explained that she and Martien both grew up in Southern California near Los Angeles, where water and power…
Arts Alive!
Presented by Eureka Main Street. Opening receptions for artists, exhibits and performances are held the first Saturday of each month. For more information, call 442-9054 or go to www.eurekamainstreet.org 707 BAR First and C streets. Barry Evans photography. Music by Dr. Squid. A TASTE OF BIM 613 Third St. Maggie Draper, artwork. AMERICAN INDIAN ART…
Heathers is Very
The 1980s are a decade remembered as a little more feckless, joyous and callow than they in fact were. In line with that recollection is a whole era of teen movies. Some were fun; many are unwatchable now. But in 1989, as the decade churned to a close, there was the movie Heathers, from the…
In the Dark and On Our Own
Well, that new normal sure hit quick, huh? The Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which first swept over Humboldt County with minimal notice when it was thrust into 28 hours of darkness Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, came back with a vengeance less than three weeks later. In an effort to keep its woefully neglected infrastructure…
