RCT’s Bloomsday Back for One Night Only
Jaunt back to the Emerald Isle with Redwood Curtain Theatre to revisit a sweet, heartwarming love story whose telling was cut short by unforseen circumstances. In March of 2020, the pandemic shut down the final performances of RCT’s Bloomsday when there was so much more love (and brilliant perfomances) to give. ’Twas a cryin’ shame. Back…
Garden-y Things Happening This Week
Spring is here and there are glorious garden-y things happening this week — good for your yard and good for your soul. Stop by the Benefit for the Fortuna Garden Club on Saturday, March 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Fortuna River Lodge and pick up bright and delightful daffodils to color your…
Got Ideas for New Best of Humboldt Categories?
Thanks for your feedback to our survey. You’ve got some good ideas! Look for the Best of Humboldt nomination round to begin on May 1st, where you can nominate your favorite Humboldt persons, places or things. Love, NCJ
Public Health Reports Six New COVID-19 Cases, One Hospitalization, as County Nears Vaccine Milestone
Humboldt County Public Health confirmed six new COVID-19 cases today and reported that nearly 50,000 vaccination doses had been administered locally as of Tuesday. Today’s cases were reported after laboratories processed 201 samples with a test-positivity rate of 3 percent. The county reported one new hospitalization. Public Health also reported yesterday that it and partners…
Drive Thru Dinner Fundraisers
Dinner conundrum? Problem solved. A few local organizations are serving up the goods at their fundraising dinners this week offering a variety of choices. It’s eats made easy, folks — delicious, nutritious and you don’t even have to get out of your car. The Rotary Club of Southwest Eureka is grilling plump bratwursts for The Best…
Tsunami Warning Test on Wednesday
The annual Tsunami Warning Communications Test takes place Wednesday between 11 a.m. and noon, with sirens, a Civil Air Patrol flyover, alerts and notifications via NOAA weather radio as well as local TV and radio. An annual coordinated effort between between the National Weather Service, local tribal governments, Caltrans District 1, the Civil Air Patrol…
Humboldt County Library’s Author Visit with Tamar Burris
Hey, parents and kids! Meet local author Tamar Burris and listen to a reading of her new children’s picture book A New Special Friend at the Humboldt County Library’s Author Visit with Tamar Burris on Thursday, March 25 from 11 a.m. to noon via Zoom (free). In this book, Little Fox has adjusted to his…
A Boba Cafe Makeover for the Former Chalet
Sometimes the universe closes one restaurant and opens another. Stalwart fans of Eureka’s Chalet House of Omelettes have migrated from the shuttered Fifth Street location to its Cutten sibling for breakfast, but the little diner next to Annie’s Cambodian won’t be empty much longer. In fact, the new neighbors will be family. Namesake Annie Chau’s…
County Receives 1,600 Additional Vaccination Doses, Expands Weekly Clinics
Humboldt County Public Health confirmed three new COVID-19 cases today after processing 56 samples with a test-positivity rate of 5.4 percent. Public Health also announced that 10 previously reported cases have been removed from the county’s cumulative tally, as one was a false-positive, another was a duplicate and the other eight were determined to be…
Skeletal Remains Found Near Fields Landing
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after human skeletal remains were found last night in mudflats north of the Fields Landing boat ramp. According to a news release, the individual has not been identified and it appears the remains have “been submerged underwater for some time.” The HCSO states no other details are currently…
Prey-go-neesh One Step Closer to Soaring in Humboldt Skies
After nearly a century, California condors will soon once again soar over Yurok ancestral lands, the culmination of years of work by the tribe on behalf of the bird Yurok people know as prey-go-neesh. Nearly lost to extinction in the 1980s, condors are integrally connected to the Yurok Tribe and others in the region, where…
Word Humboldt Offers Online Poetry Workshops
Word Humboldt, KEET-TV and the Humboldt County Library have teamed up to offer a series of online poetry workshops in support of the new documentary Hemingway premiering on KEET on April 5. The workshop series, Taking the Hemingway Out of Hemingway: Poetry, Social Justice and the ‘Great American Novelist,’ kicks off Thursday, March 25 at…
‘Real People’: Sunday’s Love Over Hate Vigil
The sun belied the chill on Sunday afternoon in the lot of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside, some 200 people came for a walking meditation and vigil for victims of the March 16 shooting in Atlanta that targeted Asian women and took the lives of eight people. In front of the closed hall,…
County Records 36th COVID Death, 14 New Cases
Public Health reported today that a 36th Humboldt County resident has died with COVID-19 — a person in their 50s. The county also reported that laboratories have confirmed 14 new COVID-19 cases after processing 626 samples with a test-positivity rate of 2.2 percent. On the vaccine front, the county reported last week that it expects…
NCJ Preview: A Cannabis Con Uncovered, Infusion Fails and Wishful Strains
In a roundup of our annual Cannabis Issue, we’ve got the story of how Rohnert Park police got busted for allegedly making shady pot busts, taking cash and weed for themselves, then trying to cover it up. We’ve also got the hilarious cautionary tale of a writer who tried to infuse homemade mozzarella and a…
Pacific Outfitters Shutters Arcata Site, HSU Bookstore Moving into Downtown Location
Pacific Outfitters announced on Facebook that its downtown Arcata location has “succumbed to COVID-19” and will not reopen post-pandemic after nearly 50 years of operation in the city. Formerly called The New Outdoor Store and located on the Plaza, Pacific Outfitters has had a home in Arcata since the 1970s, according to the Facebook post.…
Protestors Call for Firing of EPD Officers Involved in Reported Text Message Scandal
About 50 people turned out yesterday to a protest in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse calling on the Eureka Police Department to fire the officers who reportedly sent misogynistic and violent text messages that were leaked to the Sacramento Bee. EPD Chief Steve Watson has placed two of the six officers involved in the…
Esteban’s Reopens in Arcata
After closing briefly upon of the death of its locally beloved proprietor Esteban Gonzales, Esteban’s is open once again. His wife, Francisca Gonzales, reopened the tiny Mexican institution on March 4 with help from her nephew Luis Cilveron. Esteban was hospitalized in December of 2020 with COVID-19 and, despite the virus having left his system…
‘Love Over Hate’ Vigil for Atlanta Victims Planned Sunday
In response to the deaths of eight people, six of whom were Asian women, in the Tuesday, March 16 shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, the Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders (HAPI) in Solidarity and the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside will host a walking meditation/vigil on Sunday, March 21, from 4 to 7 p.m. Participants are required…
Public Health Confirms 13 New COVID-19 Cases, Clarifies Youth Sports Spectator Guidelines
Humboldt County Public Health confirmed 13 new COVID-19 cases today after laboratories processed 364 samples with a test-positivity rate of 3.6 percent, bringing the county’s cumulative case count to 3,419. The county also reported that the state has updated its youth sport guidance to offer more clarity about spectators, with Health Officer Ian Hoffman saying…
Eureka Mayor ‘Angry’ About Alleged EPD Text Messages
Eureka Mayor Susan Seaman issued a statement this afternoon saying the text messages allegedly sent between Eureka Police Department officers that were released in a bombshell report from the Sacramento Bee earlier this week “are wholly unbecoming of any professional, or any decent human being for that matter.” “Public trust is hard to earn and…
Klamath River Tribes Open Mass Vaccination Site to All Residents, Including Non-Tribal Members
The Hoopa Valley Tribe, with assistance from the Yurok and Karuk Tribes, are leading an inter-tribal effort to vaccinate all Klamath-Trinity community members 18 years old and older, including non-tribal members, on March 27. The Hoopa Valley Tribe’s K’ima:w Medical Center has enough vaccine supply for all residents in the inland ancestral lands of Hoopa,…
‘Scotia Lodge’ Estate Sale on This Weekend and Next
The Scotia Inn is under new ownership and reinventing itself courtesy of the folks who brought us the Humboldt Bay Social Club. Changes are afoot with the reopening of the planned ‘Scotia Lodge’ set for June. To make way for the new, the public has an opportunity to poke around and perhaps pick up a bit…
Public Health Confirms 15 New COVID-19 Cases, Reports 5K Vaccine Doses Coming
Humboldt County Public Health confirmed 15 new COVID-19 cases today, making 61 this week and bringing the county’s cumulative total to 3,406. Today’s cases were reported after labs processed 262 samples with a test positivity rate of 5.7 percent. On the vaccine front, the county also reported today that the state has allocated it 5,210…
Large Breaking Waves to Hit Local Beaches
The National Weather Service in Eureka is warning of large breaking waves that are expected to hit the local coastline on Friday. A large west-northwest swell moving into the area could bring waves up to 22-feet crashing onto beaches starting early in the morning. The NWS is urging people to stay well away from the…
RAIN DAY, sort of
Your phone said rain Wear a raincoat, you said Mine said drizzle, I didn’t bother People in the Co-op parking lot pulled up their hoodies except for one man with a broken umbrella he held it over his head as he walked to his truck The trees, the streets, the crows called, Rain! We all…
The Beautiful Disaster of My Medicated Mozzarella Fail
My reach has exceeded my grasp. I flew too close to the sun. Mistakes were made infusing what should never have been infused. And now the ghosts of three sad blobs of homemade mozzarella haunt me with the echoing thuds they made when I threw them into the trash. Let’s back up to give some…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Poet Ocean Vuong speaks of the Hawaiian word kipuka. It refers to a patch of earth that doesn’t get covered with lava when an active volcano exudes its molten material. “Before the lava descended,” Vuong writes, “that piece of land was insignificant, just another scrap in an endless mass of green.”…
Cannabis Strains We Need in 2021
Six-foot Skunk Whoa, there. Are people getting a little lax with social distance after a year? This heavy diesel, extra stinky bud is bred with skunk cabbage genetics and raised in a compost of teenage boys’ socks and a mystery compound found in a Tupperware in the back of the break room fridge at our…
High School Sports Revisited
March 4 brought more hope to high school sports and to youth and club sports. It also brought a lot of confusion. The California Interscholastic Federation has agreed that all sports, including indoor, could resume immediately under certain conditions. In the Humboldt Del Norte League, soccer games begin today and football games begin this weekend…
Short Season Ahead for Ocean Sport Salmon Anglers
If the PFMC is right, we could see fewer salmon like the one pictured here with Colby Black, from Houston, Texas, this fall. The recreational ocean salmon season is tentatively scheduled to open either late June or July 1 and last through July. The final decision will come from the PFMC meetingsin April. Looking at…
Battle Cries
CHERRY. Despite seeming to mostly keep himself to himself, Nico Walker is a pretty prominent media figure these days. He’s been profiled, albeit somewhat superficially, by some fancy outlets, married a poet with a splashy lifestyle (Rachel Rabbit White) and has had his first novel adapted into a big, noisy movie by some Avengers guys…
Legalization and Vaccination
Is it legal yet? I mean, we’re 50-something days into a new Democratic administration with Democrats in control of both houses, so what’s the holdup? For years, the lack of any real movement toward federal cannabis legalization — or at least decriminalization — has been blamed (rightfully, in many respects) on recalcitrant Republicans, most notably…
Missing
Editor: Thank you for the descriptive profile of Denver Nelson, and for letting us know we’ve lost a beloved community member (“Remembering Denver Nelson: 1941 to 2021,” March 11). I’m sure many people are feeling this loss deeply. I’m glad Nelson had the opportunity to ride his jet boat up the Klamath to see the…
A ‘Massive’ Cost
Editor: J.A. Savage (“Reward Water’s Worth,” March 11) says, “Water-wasting industries like nuclear power plants and pulp mills of the 1960s were the old, clear-cutting, resource-wasting Humboldt County. We will never go back to that kind of industry, nor do we want to.” Unfortunately, we still have the Humboldt Sawmill power plant in Scotia, which…
‘Vindicated’
After an investigation launched to determine exactly what happened to 3 pounds of Humboldt County cannabis, the FBI is alleging that the Rohnert Park police officer who headed his department’s drug interdiction team was dirty. The seizure of those 3 pounds, the FBI determined, was a theft carried out by two police officers falsely impersonating…
County Loses Cannabis Tax Appeal
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors overstepped when it modified the cannabis tax that county voters approved in 2016, a three-judge appellate court has ruled, upholding a Humboldt County Superior Court’s finding last year that the board’s changes “impermissibly broadened the scope of the tax.” Passed with 66 percent of the vote, Measure S imposed…
Antarctic Atlantis?
Never mind Waldo or Bernie. Where’s Atlantis? The site of the “lost civilization” has probably caused more trees to be cut down in the service of books and magazines claiming to know the answer than any other pseudo-scientific boondoggle. As I wrote a while back (“Atlantis: The Lost Land,” Sept. 10, 2015), the mythical land…
State Awards $30 Million to Study Cannabis
We’re soon going to learn a whole lot about cannabis in California. An often overlooked provision of California’s landmark legalization measure — Proposition 64 — set aside funds for research grants to study the impacts of cannabis. Well, the Bureau of Cannabis Control recently announced that it is awarding nearly $30 million in grants of…
