The Broken State
What destroyed California? Reagan and the anti-tax zealots.
Cover Story
The Broken State
please see also Ron Ross’s response “Don’t Blame Reagan” Much of the right-wing agenda that has thrown this nation into economic chaos can be traced back to what was once called the Golden State. The tax revolts that started here under Gov. Ronald Reagan and continued to sweep the country and the world under President…
Pot pioneers
Pot pioneers: The San Francisco Bay Guardian profiles two simultaneous efforts to Legalize It! in California — a ballot initiative, led by those studious stoners at Oaksterdam University, and Assembly Bill 390, introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who’s been exchanging sweet nothings with Governor Schwarzenegger of late. A heads-up to the local Chamber of Commerce:…
Facebooking the Blogthing
Facebook fanatics: If this works — fingers crossed — you can now get updates from the Blogthing right there in your “friendstream,” or whatever the hell it’s called. How does it work? Just become a fan of the NCJ on our Facebook fan page. When a new post hits the Blogthing … boom! Your friendstream…
Samoa Pulp Mill Not Dead Yet
So says Freshwater Tissue’s Bob Simpson, addressing the flurry of attention that followed a post — since removed — by blogger, former mill worker and newly elected Harbor Commissioner Richard Marks. Said post anounced that the mill would fire up again in April. No further information was provided. Here’s the deal: After being denied federal…
MJ & ‘T Bear’ [updated]
slogan? News release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office: Shortly after midnight yesterday [Tuesday], a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy was on patrol in the Willow Creek area when he saw a vehicle with an equipment violation. He made a traffic stop and contacted the three occupants of the vehicle. While speaking with them, the deputy…
Election Final Report
Election Nov. 3, 2009 “Unofficial” Final Report Total Ballots Cast 15,359 21.4% Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation & Conservation District Division Three Commissioner Mike Wilson 2,680 71.8% Dan Hauser 1,023 27.4% Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation & Conservation District Division Four Commissioner Richard Marks 1,268 47.2% John Ash…
Second Report
Wilson: 1,308 Hauser: 681 Marks: 1,129 Ash: 890 Penn: 412
First Harbor District Results
The Election Department’s Web site is down, but here’s the absentee results: THIRD DIVISION Wilson: 1,268 Hauser: 669 FOURTH DIVISION Ash: 658 Penn: 213 Marks: 718
Harbor District Predictions
Proving my powers of prognostication, or lack thereof. Remember: This is not a substitute for actual voting. Vote today! THIRD DIVISION Wilson: 60% Hauser: 40% FOURTH DIVISION Marks: 50% Ash: 32% Penn: 18%
Halloween on the Plaza
Chaos. Photos from Will Startare, the face of the Journal : After the jump, Startare’s writer/director, Journal calendar editor Andrew Goff, chronicles the event’s tragic aftermath:
Last Gasp for Eureka Reporter?
It’s been just about a year since the Eureka Reporter threw in the towel and ended Eureka’s five-year newspaper war. In a deal that’s never really been explained, the Times-Standard agreed to run the E.R. editorial/opinion page twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays, putting Peter Hannaford in charge. A “message for our readers” in the…
A Waterbagger’s Pitch
Editor: This story is a fair representation of what our group is trying to accomplish (“Cup Runneth Over,” Oct. 22). We are proposing a demonstration of our waterbag technology in California so that the people of Humboldt County can see what we are suggesting, and continue to control their water supply. We hope to create…
Medicine Trails
As a young woman, Mavis McCovey was trained to enter a spirit world by her Karuk Indian elders — older medicine women. What’s unsettling is that McCovey, now an old woman in the Klamath River town of Orleans, sounds somehow believable. For us materialists, judging magic is simple. It’s all either delusional, illusional or confusional.…
Santa Defamed
Editor: “Damn Santa” was a poor choice for a title for your thoughtful, perceptive, and warm-hearted article (“Savage Money,” Oct. 22). My legal name is Santa Claus, and I’m a full-time volunteer advocate for the two million children in the U.S. annually who are abused, neglected, exploited, abandoned, homeless and institutionalized through no fault of…
Goodnight Unknown
Prolific singer/songwriter/musician Lou Barlow seems to be bringing things together of late, rather than fragmenting further into additional side projects. After his departure from Dinosaur Jr., where he was a founding member, Barlow created Sebadoh with instrumentalist Eric Gaffney. Then came the lo-fi independent side project Sentridoh. Then The Folk Implosion. Having recently rejoined and…
View From The Pecans
Editor: I enjoy and count on “Stage Matters.” But I’m afraid William Kowinski shows understandable ignorance of growing up in the Deep South when he says the part of Chick Boyle was overplayed (“Stage Matters,” Oct. 22, on the Ferndale Rep’s production of Crimes of the Heart). Having grown up in the South, I was…
This End Up
The story goes that The Lakota holy man Black Elk took poet John Neihardt to the top of Harney Peak in the Black Hills to pray, explaining that it was the center of the world. When Neihardt asked how he knew that, Black Elk chuckled at the white man’s innocence and with patiently explained that…
The Fishes’ Guarantee
Editor: Hank Sims’ excellent article on the current state of the Klamath Settlement negotiations was well informed, though not correct on every detail (“The Klamath Settlement,” Oct. 8). Nor was the recent letter by Greg King (Oct. 15). As the commercial fishing industry’s lead negotiator, perhaps I can shed some light. In particular, the frequent…
A is for Apple
No fruit is more to our English taste than the Apple. Let the Frenchman have his Pear, the Italian his Fig, the Jamaican may retain his farinaceous Banana, and the Malay his Durian, but for us the Apple. — Edward Bunyard, The Anatomy of Dessert (1929) In The Anatomy of Dessert, nurseryman and pomologist Edward…
Buddhists For H1N1
Editor: Well, it seems like healthy debate and discussion these days could do with exercise. It’s like our muscles — if ya don’t use them they gets flabby, verdad? If I didn’t know better, I would think the only view on the pig flu is the government’s view. What might that be? “Oh, it’s really…
summer went ahead and turned to fall
something about that last gasp of light the…
Flora of North America
The 150-year-old Missouri Botanical Garden is known for undertaking ambitious and extraordinary projects. It’s the oldest botanical garden in the United States, but it’s also one of the country’s most forward-thinking horticultural institutions. For a few years now it’s been scanning its rare books collection and making every page available at Botanicus.com in a fully-searchable…
Don’t Blame Reagan
please see also “The Broken State” by Steven T. Jones and Tim Redmond We can all agree that California is a fiscal mess. As I have traveled around the country over the past few months, people I talk with seem to essentially view our state with a sense of pity. They ask, “What are you…
Social Compact
Pop quiz: What do a big box store, a freeway interchange and the old walled city of Florence, Italy have in common? Answer: They take up roughly the same amount of space. This was just one of many provocative facts presented to local planners and policymakers at Eureka’s Wharfinger building last Wednesday at a workshop…
Midnight Movie
Previews Opening Wednesday, Oct. 28, with one screening Tuesday evening, is Michael Jackson’s This Is It, a documentary directed by Kenny Ortega that tracks the late singer as he prepared for a series of concerts in London. The film, shot in HD video, also has interviews with Jackson’s friends and collaborators. Rated PG for some…
Dope and the Duped
Why is it that so few people are able to think with a clear head when it comes to the topic of the demon weed? After 40 years of cohabitation, you’d think we’d have a handle on what it is and isn’t. Yet discourse on the subject is even more loopy here than in the…
McKinleyville’s To Be Tree
Aaron Libow has lived at the bottom of the dip in Central Avenue, north of the Highway 101 offramp, for most of the past 38 years. From his half-acre, he’s watched the town’s main bisector go from canopied-over country road to strip mall-lined thoroughfare. He’s watched the old Monterey cypress trees that formed the canopy…
Most Definitely
There was a time when hip hop was rebel music, a blast from the inner-city alternating between party soundtrack and protest against injustice. As hip hop caught hold it merged with mainstream pop and for the most part, lost its edge. From the beginning, socially conscious artists like KRS-One were working underground pumping out rebel…
We’re Drowning
Editor: I am writing in response to the article “Cup Runneth Over” (Oct. 22). In this article, the author, Heidi Walters, writes of the business that was lost when the pulp mill closed, and how that will raise the cost of water for the rest of us here in Humboldt. I am left wondering: What…
