Taking On City Hall
Janelle Egger sued Fortuna to gain access to public records on its water system, and won. Or did she?
Cover Story
Taking on City Hall
At a public hearing next Monday, Jan. 18, the Fortuna City Council will consider a plan to demolish two aged 500,000 gallon water tanks on Stewart Street, and build a 2 million gallon reservoir on the same site. Like the old tanks, the new tank would provide water for the city’s largest pressure zone, which…
Nichols Out, Glass In as NEC Prez
Two bombshells from the Northcoast Environmental Center this afternoon: 1) Eureka City Councilman Larry Glass has replaced Pete Nichols as president of the NEC board. 2) The organization’s drastic economic downsizing over the past year or so has been effective: The NEC is now debt-free, according to both Nichols and Glass. Glass said the power…
Old Town Bar and Grill: Saved!
It looks as if the Humboldt County building worst damaged in Jan. 9 earthquake is gonna be saved after all. Three days after the earthquake, the Eureka City Council met in emergency session to permit the destruction of the former Old Town Bar and Grill building, which sits on Second Street in between D and…
Eureka California is Dead
control. Eureka California is Dead: The Flagpole, our sister paper in Athens, Ga., reports that the local (to Athens) powerpunk band Eureka California has just dropped a new album — Eureka California is Dead. Check out the band’s MySpace page.
Ettersburg 2.0
You know a place is tiny when it doesn’t even show up on Google maps . Residents of Ettersburg and other itty-bitty SoHum towns, like Whitehorn and Honeydew, were starting to wonder last year if they were also invisible to Verizon, their land-line phone service provider. It took a community uprising over dismal service (and…
Ferndale Horse Races Rescued Again
Horses will return once again to the Humboldt County Fairgrounds this year, marking the 114th season of racing at the Ferndale track. This was hardly a sure thing. On Friday, the California Horse Racing Board narrowly approved a summer season racing schedule that allows Ferndale five days of non-overlapped racing (Aug. 18-22) and four days…
MediaNews Declares Bankruptcy
MediaNews Declares Bankruptcy: … but the Times-Standard’s parent corporation is expected to breeze through court with the blessing of creditors, the Wall Street Journal reports. Head honcho Dean “The Beast” Singleton will remain in
Big Bad Voodoo postponed
The Arkley Center for the Performing Arts did not fare too badly in the earthquake, but the interior suffered some superficial damage — some plaster fell here and there. Theater staff reports that “minor repairs and cleanup” are still underway, and a result they’ve decided to reschedule the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy show originally planned…
Cleary Announces
If you’re keeping score, this makes it Patrick Cleary and Pat Higgins in the Fifth District, with at least a few more fence-sitters likely to follow. My friends, Please join Cat and me at Azalea Hall in McKinleyville on Wednesday January 20th at 12:30pm when I will announce my candidacy for County Supervisor for 5th…
Shift Happens
There’s a Rodney Crowell song, "California Earthquake," that seems apropos considering what we just went through: "California earthquake, you just don’t know what you’ve done. We may fall off in the ocean, but you’ll never make us run. You’re a partner to the devil, but we ain’t afraid of him. We’ll build ourselves another town…
Rumbletown
On Saturday afternoon at 4:27 and 39 seconds, 18 miles beneath the surface of the ocean and 23 miles west of Ferndale, a vast slab of the earth’s crust known as the Gorda plate slipped vertically against the much larger North American plate laterally along a vertical faultline, releasing years of accumulated pressure in the…
Foreshock
We craftsmen of the English language are forever in a state of childlike awe at the power of the pictures we paint. We dream our little dreams and release them like butterflies, and watch adoringly as they flutter off to reshape the universe in their image. The Writer accepts and embraces these gifts, and when…
On the Records
Editor: The issues described by Carol Harrison regarding electronic medical records reminded me of another reason for North Coast veterans to be grateful for the VA medical system (“Top of the Charts,” Jan. 7). Veterans Affairs has a fully implemented electronic medical data system that allows veterans’ complete medical records (and even Advanced Directives) to…
You Philistine!
Editor: Jennifer Savage has opinions, and that’s great — but does she have to express them (“Public Viewings,” Jan. 7)? In reading your bitter little column (paradoxically illustrated by a truly stunning exemplar of Matt Porr’s work), I found myself pondering the platitude that a picture is worth a thousand words: I could certainly have…
Tragedy & Comedy
Editor: Belated note on “Prodigal Arkley” (Dec. 31): In the 15-20 minutes it took me to stop laughing after I perused the piece, I mentally composed a letter to the editor — “Seven-O-Heaven has outdone itself! Hilarious! Brilliant! Thank you!” Then I thought, “Nah, they’ll get so much praise that I don’t need to throw…
Yellow Water
Editor: Your article on wastewater in Eureka was good, but contained a major mistake (“Waste Water,” Dec. 31). Brewery water does not just go into the bottle. In fact, breweries are major producers of wastewater, which can have significant demands on wastewater treatment plants. Mad River Brewing has a pretreatment facility in Blue Lake. Both…
Check Your Checking
Editor: Once again, thank you to Jennifer Savage for a well written, well reasoned, informative letter about managing one’s money (“Insolvency Resolved,” Dec. 24). In my opinion her work should be shared with every high school student in Humboldt County who is about to step out into the world of personal finance, and the personal…
Investigate and Apologize
Editor: I am just catching up on my NCJ’s from the holiday season and was impressed, as well as saddened, by Ryan Burns’ piece on the plane that was lost off Trinidad last spring. (“The Plane That Wasn’t There,” Dec. 17). Burns’ fine account of how this tragic story was, and continues to be, kept…
Music Success in Nine Weeks
By Ariel Hyatt Self-published As we take a new trip around the sun, many independent (read poor) musicians are silently wondering if they’ll survive another year. The music business isn’t getting any easier and it doesn’t seem as if opportunities abound for the independent musician. The "Do-It-Yourself" ethic used to be worn as a badge…
Winter Mourning
Another birthday There is peace in the silence…
McKinleyville Art Night
1. The Front Gallery & Gifts, 1181 Central Avenue Local art and glassware; Rock music by Guan. 2. Pathways Trading Company, 1183 Central Avenue Seer Snively, Places and Faces of Humboldt, photographs. 3. Mirador Glass, Miller Business Park Libby Yee, Chinese brush paintings. 4. Curves, Miller Business Park Linda Seymour, drawings and mixed media; Edith…
Face A Frowning World: An E.C. Ball Memorial Album
Estil Cortez Ball and his wife, Orna, performed original gospel and country folksongs throughout Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as performing for a local radio gospel show from their hometown of Rugby, Va., for over 40 years. E.C. and Orna created a huge catalogue of songs, mostly gospel-based, with E.C. providing lead vocals…
Quest for Bread
Waaayyyy back in the day, when God was a boy, I made whole wheat bread from the venerable Tassajara Bread Book. This was a welcome change from the San Francisco sourdough French that was most people’s idea of good bread in olden days. Making bread appealed to an idler like me, with its long stretches…
The Monty Hall Problem
So much ink has been spilled over the "Monty Hall Problem" that a little more won’t make any difference (first fallacy!). The "paradox" (second fallacy) got a huge play 20 years ago in Marilyn von Savant’s Parade magazine column, and resurfaces at regular intervals. Here’s how Marilyn posed it. You’re on a Monty Hall’s Let’s…
The Ides of Crap
Previews Opening Friday, Jan. 15, is The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic (it’s all the rage) action film directed by the Hughes brothers. Denzel Washington stars as Eli, who guards what might be the last Bible in existence, and Gary Oldman as the baddy who wants it for himself. Rated R for some brutal violence…
