Cover Stories
As Acreage Cap Lawsuit Plods On, the Stakes Grow
The California Department of Food and Agriculture is asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit alleging it acted inappropriately when it effectively declined to institute a cap on the acreage a single entity can get licensed for cannabis cultivation. Brought in January by the California Growers Association, the lawsuit takes aim at the emergency regulations…
As Cannabis Markets Lurch, Some Humboldt Towns Are Rising, Others Falling
First quarter sales at The Garden of Beadin’ are bad. The small beading supply store, which has been operating in Garberville for 33 years, is used to seeing a slower stretch at the beginning of the year but owner Charlotte Silverstein attributes unusually poor sales in 2018 to the impact of cannabis legalization. “In this…
Humboldt Board of Supervisors to Consider Capping Cannabis Cultivation Licenses
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will consider next week whether to cap the total number of cannabis cultivation permits available in the county. County Planning Director John Ford says that when the board meets in a special session March 19 to consider approving an environmental impact report and a new commercial cannabis land use…
Humboldt Supervisors Consider New Cannabis Ordinance
So much has transpired since Humboldt County passed its groundbreaking Commercial Medical Marijuana Land Use Ordinance — passage of state medical cannabis regulations, statewide recreational legalization and the creation of a new regulatory framework for both industries — that it can be easy to forget it happened just two years ago. “It’s like from 1932…
McKinley Removal Process Continues Without a Vote
The removal of President William McKinley’s statue appears to be back on track. After nearly four hours of public comment at Wednesday’s meeting, Arcata Councilmember Susan Ornelas announced she was rescinding her suggestion to put the question of where the bronze work should stand – with one of the potential options being plaza center –…
Mateel, High Times Create Partnership to Save Reggae on the River
The Mateel Community Center’s board of directors voted last night to approve a partnership with High Times Productions to put on Reggae on the River. The deal was announced in a press release this morning with few details, other than that the production company, the event-management arm of High Times Media, will “assume responsibility for…
All Guts and Glory: An Interview with Sylvestris Quartet
The Sylvestris Quartet are an all gut-string Bay Area group whose repertoire spans from the Baroque era to the 20th century. I interviewed violinist Anna Washburn and violist Aaron Westman via email to discuss their upcoming performance in Westhaven and what eschewing modern strings can entail for modern players. What is the history of the…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, March 21
The Bay Area’s Sylvestris Quartet comes to the Westhaven Center for the Arts to perform a series of pieces centered around two disparate but innovative composers of the style, Ludwig van Beethoven and Heinrich Ignatz Franz Biber, starting at 7:30 p.m. ($5-$20 sliding scale). The quartet only plays on the gut strings used by musicians…
Eureka NAACP Calls for Censure of Arcata Councilmember After ‘Lynch Mob’ Comment
The Eureka branch of the NAACP has sent a letter to the Arcata City Council urging it to consider passing a resolution of censure against Councilman Michael Winkler for an open letter he sent to Mayor Sofia Pereira — and published in two local newspapers — that likened the crowd at a recent city council…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, March 20
The Outer Space hosts a pretty cool noise night at 7 p.m. with Portland acts Open Marriage and System Lords (price TBA). Representing the local noise community is Ferndale’s Goruta. I didn’t even know it was legal to make loud music in Ferndale, let alone noise music, so good on them.
Supes Get Divergent Input on Cannabis Ordinance
In packed chamber, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors began discussing its commercial cannabis land use ordinance today and — after a two-hour staff report and hours of public comment — Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Ryan Sundberg indicated he’s hopeful the board will adopt the new ordinance when it comes back before the…
Last Chance Grade Project Slated to Receive $5M
The California Transportation Commission is slated this week to earmark an additional $5 million to help pave the way for an alternative to Last Chance Grade. The new funds will be combined with a previous $5 million allocated by the agency last May to pay for the environmental studies needed to move forward with a…
UPDATE: HCSO Serves Warrants on Multiple Properties in Animal Abuse Investigation
2nd UPDATE: On Mar. 22 The Humboldt-Del Norte County Cattlemen’s Association sent out a press release rebuking Christie, calling the scene “horrific and disturbing” and saying the Christie was not a member of their association. UPDATE: A press release sent out this morning by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Raymond Frank Christie was…
Bread and Sugar: Pan Dulce from El Pueblo
When fire shut down El Pueblo Market on Broadway in Eureka, it left a sweet roll-sized hole in our hearts and stomachs. While we wait for the market and its wall of baked goods to reopen — soon, we hear, though there’s no firm date — we’re feeding our pan dulce cravings at its Redwood…
Music Tonight: Monday, March 19
Redwood Raks Dance Studio continues its Monday swing-dance night for intermediate to advanced rug cutters. My sources tell me it’s at 7 p.m. and for $7 and even for a non-gambler, those are some lucky numbers.
Arcata Council Considers Putting McKinley to a Citywide Vote
The Arcata City Council will consider Wednesday whether to move forward with some form of an advisory vote on the future of President William McKinley’s statue after voting last month to remove the bronze tribute from the plaza. With a large crowd expected to turn out for the discussion, city officials decided they were going…
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz to Speak
Get your ticket and take a seat for a timely lecture by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, award-winning historian and writer who penned An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States and Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment. Ortiz visits the Van Duzer Theatre on Tuesday, March 20 at 7 p.m. ($15).
Music Tonight: Sunday, March 18
Sorry if I am breaking any hearts with this non-breaking news, but the Bonnie Raitt show up at The Van Duzer Theatre is totally sold out. Here’s a good idea for those of you who missed the chance to see the red-haired, slide-playing chanteuse: How about attending a singing workshop at The Sanctuary at high…
ATL Screens The Love Witch
Arcata Theatre Lounge’s new Monday night Hollywood Clapback film series offers up The Love Witch (2016) on Monday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m. ($5). This critically acclaimed sendup to 60s pulp novels and Technicolor camp about a woman determined to get what she wants was shot in very familiar spots around Eureka and Arcata.
Music Tonight: Saturday, March 17
It’s that other green-themed holiday celebrating intoxication with a faint nod to a foreign culture. But unlike 4/20, this day usually gets a little feistier and has nothing to do with listening to reggae and getting high. Instead it’s amateur happy hour for people who probably shouldn’t drink and — this could be the weed…
Sorry Fans! No David Lindley This Weekend!
If this week’s Setlist got you stoked about upcoming super-strummer David Lindley being in town, we are sorry. Humboldt State University’s Center Arts informs us the singer will not be performing this Saturday due to medical problems. Here’s the number to call if you need a ticket refund: 826-3928. And here’s a video of Lindley performing…
Music Tonight: Friday, March 16
Bay Area R&B and retro-soul singer Quinn DeVeaux brings his tenor voice and fantastic band to the Sanctuary tonight at 7 p.m. for an evening of hip-shaking dance music. It took me a while to warm up to the Sanctuary as it reminds me of a cult house from a mid-’70s David Cronenberg flick where…
Parents of Man Killed by Police File Wrongful Death Claim
The parents of a 26-year-old man shot and killed by Arcata and Humboldt State University police in September have filed a claim for damages with the city, alleging negligence, wrongful death and “conspiracy to cover up.” Ervin Eugene Sweat Jr. allegedly opened fire on police officers, wounding one, with a stolen .40 caliber handgun in…
Supes Set to Consider Cannabis Ordinance, Permit Cap Monday
As we reported in this week’s print edition, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Monday to consider approving a new land use ordinance to govern commercial cannabis and placing a cap on the number of cultivation permits issued countywide. The proposed ordinance would change the way cannabis…
McGuire Calls to Dissolve North Coast Railroad Authority
State Sen. Mike McGuire introduced amendments to Senate Bill 1029 — the Great Redwood Trail Act — today that would effectively dismantle the North Coast Railroad Authority and transfer the northern portion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad line, from Willits to Arcata, to the state Department of Transportation. The DOT will begin “railbanking” the property,…
The Humboldt Wine Festival Returns
The Humboldt Wine Festival is back with more unlimited tastings of some of the area’s best wines and ciders on Saturday, March 17 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Humboldt State University’s Kate Buchanan Room ($40). Presented by the Rotary Club of Arcata and North Bay Rotaract, the evening features wine-themed games, raffles, live music…
Perilous Plungers Take a Dive for the Discovery Museum
The biggest fundraiser of the year for the Redwood Discovery Museum is a wet and wild Humboldt county tradition. The Perilous Plunge, happening Saturday, March 17 at 11 a.m. at the F Street Dock in Eureka, sees presumably sane people take a running leap off a short pier for a very good cause. Cash from…
Music Tonight: Thursday, March 15
I forgot what a thrill the first heady hits are and how much of an upper this plant is for me. I am firing on all cylinders and ready to report in the midst of this fantastic time-dilation. Over at the Siren’s Song tonight it’s 33 and a Third Thursday, an old skool (that’s how…
‘The Difference is You’
Editor: Cultivating cannabis in the Humboldt hills has been a quiet business for decades. Farmers have worked in isolated environments and problem solved singularly so community outreach on the subject has been slow to form. But it is time for a change if we are to survive as a community. It’s time for us to…
Correction
A story in the March 8, 2018 edition of the North Coast Journal headlined “Plight of the Abalone” misattributed quotes made in response to concerns about the closure of the 2018 fishing season becoming permanent to the wrong source. Those quotes should have been attributed to Sonke Mastrup, marine program manager for the California Department…
The McKinley Divide
So, remember a few weeks ago, when the Arcata City Council voted 4-1 to take down the statue of President William McKinley? Well, things have gotten a bit more complicated. Now it appears the statue’s situation might go to some sort of vote after all — one of the options staff had recommended in the…
Naming the Sharky Looking Thing on the Beach
A couple of you may remember my imaginary friend. Well, I had him killed. Every shark I’ve ever found on a local beach ate him alive. He raised his hand in a final act of defiance as he sank into the bloody water, and a salmon shark (Lamna ditropis) bit off his middle finger. Salmon…
The Golden Era: A Cannabis Cocktail
It wasn’t easy for Adam Grossman to watch his father suffer from debilitating back pain. As prescription medication provided little relief, Grossman reacted as many caring family members do: He started Googling for help. With Internet research and some ingenuity, Grossman created his first DIY cannabis salve. Weeks later, his father, whom he calls “Papa,”…
Nunsense: Sisters Doin’ it for Themselves
The Little Sisters of Hoboken are a welcoming lot, meeting and greeting us audience members as we obediently file into the auditorium and locate our seats for the opening of Nunsense (book and music by Dan Goggin) at Ferndale Repertory Theatre. After all, some of us may have less-than-pleasant memories of the times we didn’t…
Past the Dog Whistles, What’s Really at Stake in the McKinley Statue Debate
Last week, an Arcata business leader worried aloud about Humboldt State University’s budget crunch as we sat in his office. He knew that if HSU’s annual payroll and student spending disappeared from Arcata’s economy, it would be a $100-million dollar hit. The good news is that if the future of Arcata’s economy depends solely on…
Gringo, Thoroughbreds and A Wrinkle in Time
Reviews GRINGO. On the face of it, Gringo would seem to offer just enough of a number of titillating things to ensure a fine time at the movies: corporate intrigue, criminal hijinks down ol’ Mexico way, pharmaceutical cannabis, a mercenary on the prowl. What’s not to like? And, fair enough, all those things do indeed…
DJs, St. Paddy’s and a Gut-string Quartet
John Steinbeck set his 14th novel Cannery Row in the height of the Great Depression, in a town dominated by one industry: fish canning. We live in such a place now — wait. I was going to write an introduction about a changing mono-economy, its effect on the local culture and how the citizens view…
New Cannabis Strains for Today’s Stress
Jefferson Beauregard Express. With a mellow cornbread, Brill Cream and Klansman hood scent, this Indica offspring of Reefer Madness and Jim Crow rolls up on you like a black SUV full of federal agents and shuts down your anxiety about Jeff Sessions overriding California’s cannabis legalization and seizing the very product that you were counting…
A Penny for McKinley’s Thoughts
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HumBug: A March of Butterflies
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‘Not Insoluble’
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It’s Not Just Balls at the Humboldt Juggling Festival
The art of juggling encompasses object manipulation of many things: clubs, fire, diabolos, yo-yos, poi balls, cups, cantaloupes and chainsaws. There’s individual juggling, multiple-person juggling, contact juggling and more, with all types of performance styles. Those wanting to run away and join the circus can learn a few tricks of the trade (including most of…
