Cover Story
Recognizing the Year’s Worst in Government Transparency
Government transparency laws like the Freedom of Information Act exist to enforce the public’s right to inspect records so we can all figure out what the heck is being done in our name and with our tax dollars. But when a public agency ignores, breaks or twists the law, your recourse varies by jurisdiction. In…
Rescue by Torta
On a rainy day, the little striped pop-out awning on the Los Giles Taqueria tucked in the lot behind US Bank in Arcata looks like an oasis (953 G St.). (Yes, it’s the same black truck you see up the street across from the Arcata Theatre Lounge in the evening.) Pressed for a recommendation, owner…
HumBug: In-Flight Photos
Capturing photos of tiny insects is hard enough. They move and wander off the set. They’re so high contrast they can cause exposure control to go whacky. They are so small that auto-focus often selects the background. If all that weren’t enough, add motion and photos of insects on the wing are tricky. F stops…
Sampled Your Fill in Old Town?
Head to the Adorni Recreation Center for the Redwood Coast Music Festival Kick-off Dance at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 5 ($10). Stompy Jones will be getting the crowd into the swing of things with plenty of brass.
Wheetley Resigns as Fortuna’s City Manager
Just one year after accepting the position, Mark Wheetley has resigned as Fortuna’s city manager. The move came one week after he was placed on paid administrative leave by the Fortuna City Council following his sentencing in a DUI case, his second in less than two years. According to a release from the city, Wheetley…
(UPDATED WITH SLIDESHOW) #JusticeforJosiah: Students Block Admin Building, Release Demands
A group of about a dozen Humboldt State University students blocked the entrance to the administration building this morning and released a list of demands during a demonstration to call attention to the unsolved killing of David Josiah Lawson. The demonstration came as a part of 12 days of action leading up to the anniversary…
Winship on ‘Modified Lock Down’ After Shooting Threat
Winship Middle School is on “modified lockdown” after a social media threat was directed at the campus, according to the Eureka Police Department. In a Facebook post, the department said all students are safe and preliminary information “indicates the threat is not accurate.” Staff at the school received a phone call this morning alerting them…
Eureka Man Killed in Solo Crash on 299
A 56-year-old Eureka man was killed late last night when his 2001 Porche drifted off of State Route 299 and rolled west of the Mad River Bridge. The driver was ejected from the vehicle and died on scene, according to a California Highway Patrol press release. Officials are withholding his identity until his family can…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, April 4
The Jam’s electronic dance showcase Whomp Whomp Wednesday keeps on rolling with this week curated by Psy Fi, Brittany From Earlier and GIR. The show starts at 10 p.m. and it is $5 until 11 p.m., $10 after.
A Taste of Main Street
Have a light lunch on Thursday, April 5 because at 5 p.m. A Taste of Main Street beckons with samples from dozens of restaurants and food producers all over Old Town Eureka ($25 pass). You’ll need speed and probably the shuttle bus to hit all the stops in this pre-Redwood Coast Music Festival moveable feast.
McKinley Statue Debate Making the Media Rounds
The pending removal of President William McKinley’s statue from the Arcata Plaza was thrust in the national spotlight this week after a Los Angeles Times story placed the council’s decision at the forefront of a growing push to take down symbols seen as celebrating the systematic atrocities committed against Native peoples. The article published Sunday…
Remembering and Honoring Herrmann Spetzler
Every seat in the main auditorium of the Arcata Community Center was full. Half an hour before the memorial for Herrmann Spetzler, late CEO of Open Door Community Health, vehicles futilely circled the packed parking lot. More than 500 people attended the celebration of life for Spetzler, who died unexpectedly March 11 at the age of 70.…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, April 3
Vancouver’s 5 Alarm Funk is one of those groups whose members likely sat down one day and just landed on the most obvious name to describe their sound and never looked back. If you fancy that name, come see if my theory is correct at 9:30 p.m. at Humbrews ($15, $12 advance).
Not Up to Code
Think classic movies were always so prim and proper? Honey. Before the suits started enforcing the Motion Picture Production Code in 1934, censoring out all the sex, drugs and immoral behavior, they rivalled our current prime-time news. This month the Humboldt County Library celebrates Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood Films every Tuesday at 6:30…
RCEA Selects ‘Highly Capable’ Wind Energy Team
The Redwood Coast Energy Authority announced this afternoon that it has selected a “consortium” of companies to enter into a public-private partnership to pursue the development of an offshore wind energy project off the North Coast. According to an RCEA press release, the consortium — which consists of Principle Power Inc., EDPR Offshore North America…
Man Killed in Avenue of the Giants Crash
A man was killed this morning on Avenue of the Giants when his Toyota 4Runner veered off the road, down an embankment and collided with multiple trees. The accident remains under investigation but the California Highway Patrol reports that at about 10:20 a.m. the man was traveling north on Avenue of the Giants when, for…
UPDATE: Man Killed in Chainsaw Accident Identified
UPDATE: The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has identified the man killed in a chainsaw accident Monday as 29-year-old Edgardo Tirado-Rangel. No further information has been released. PREVIOUSLY: Officials are investigating a chainsaw accident near Trinidad earlier today that left a 29-year-old man dead. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reports that, according to a witness on…
Music Tonight: Monday, April 2
Long Beach rockers Freemans Dead play Blondies tonight at 7 p.m. with Arcata’s certified awesome quartet Ms. God. (price TBA). One of the many offshoot spores of Japan’s venerable psych-meets-space-meets Kraut rock super-mushroom Acid Mothers Temple — in this case Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Parasio UFO — has predictably sold out the Miniplex…
Catch Sara Bareilles in Jesus Christ Superstar Live Tonight
Maybe a flight to New York to see hometown girl Sara Bareilles’ Broadway run in the musical Waitress wasn’t practical. That’s no reason to put “When She Was Mine” on repeat and cry into a lemon meringue. (Oh, like I’m the only one.) Tonight at 8 p.m., you can catch her live performance as Mary…
Music Tonight: Sunday, April 1
OK, so not only is it Easter Sunday but it’s also April Fool’s Day. If this somehow dovetails with Ash Wednesday happening on Valentine’s Day this year to form some larger significance, it will take a finer mind than mine to discover that meaning. Suffice it to say, religious holiday + prank holiday + Sunday…
Music Tonight: Saturday, March 31
Can you split yourself into three independent sub-beings who report back to your master consciousness without overheating its mainframe system? If so, one neat trick you could try tonight is attending three different shows that all begin at 8 p.m. Bonus points awarded if you write the Journal a coherent letter about the experience afterward.…
Can’t wait to swing?
On Saturday, March 31 at 6 p.m., the Bayside Community Center raises funds and a ruckus with Roadhouse Swing Dance with Kenny Ray and the Mighty Rovers ($8, $5 students, free to kids under 12). Pick up the moves at 6:30 p.m. and put them to use when the band comes on at 7 p.m.…
Fortuna Council Places Wheetley on Paid Leave
The Fortuna City Council has placed City Manager Mark Wheetley on paid administrative leave in the wake of his sentencing earlier this week after pleading guilty to a “wet and reckless” charge, his second DUI-related offense in less than two years. “At a city council meeting on March 28, 2018, the city council voted 5-0…
Call Me Big Hopper
Hunting for Easter fun around Humboldt? Grab your baskets and get ready to hit the bunny trail, kids. No need to wait for Sunday, either, as plenty of fun is going down on Saturday, March 31. If you’re in Ferndale, the local scouts have stashed eggs all around Firemen’s Park for you to scramble after…
Music Tonight: Friday, March 30
The Arcata Playhouse hosts bluegrass trio The Bee Eaters tonight at 7:30 p.m. Comprised of hammer dulcimer player Simon Chrisman and award-winning fiddle playing siblings Tashina and Tristan Claridge, this group is well-known beyond the bluegrass world for its playful and genre-bending virtuosity. This show is suited for the younger student budget crowd with tickets…
Residents Start Process to Put McKinley Statue on the Ballot
OK, OK, OK, maybe the controversy over President William McKinley’s statue on the Arcata Plaza will go to a vote after all. Two Arcata residents, David LaRue and Stanton Reynolds, filed paperwork with the city earlier this week to begin collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to prohibit “the modification and/or destruction” of the statue…
Mattole Beach Body Identified as that of Missing Woman
The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has identified the body found by a hiker Feb. 21 in the Mattole Beach area as that of Hana Hammer, who was reported missing Feb. 2. Hammer, 45, was last seen in the Petrolia area Jan. 25. According to a Facebook page launched to bring attention to her disappearance, her…
Music Tonight: Thursday, March 29
It’s a real wild brain-flash rock show tonight at 9 p.m. when Denver’s psych-pop warriors Eldrin meet the ocean-end of the western wagon trail at the Siren’s Song. Local sky-tripping noise barons Strix Vega share the support duties with the aptly named Leone ($5).
Not Even from Around Here
Editor: The McKinley statue has been in Arcata for many years. It was a gift given to the city of Arcata. He is one of the icons who shaped our country. Why is this statue being attacked about every couple of years, not by the citizens of Arcata, but by individuals and groups who came…
About Gun Violence
Editor: I have waited for a while to respond to the letter, “License to Shoot” (March 15), so I could be accurate and not emotional. First, I want to prevent violence, not just “gun” violence. The 33,000 gun deaths are mostly suicides. I thought progressives were for suicides? The writer does not seem to know how hard it is to…
The Starbucks of Weed Cometh
You’ll have to pardon California cannabis farmers if you catch them gazing longingly to the north, daydreaming of life on the Last Frontier, where moose abound, the night sky turns green and pounds of marijuana wholesale for $2,800 to $5,000. A recent article on www.mjbizdaily.com details pot prices across the Land of the Midnight Sun,…
You Won’t Be Silent
Your silence has been a wall that has held you back, But it isn’t the strongest part of you, When your anger breaks your wall, The anger becomes a constructive tool, and you build something stronger. When your sadness breaks your wall, Your sadness flows away and carries your helplessness away with it. When your…
Little Sunshine in Congress, State Legislature
“The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist they may retain control…
Out of Retirement
Reviews PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING. There are a number of substantial roadblocks to success in the path of this sequel. “What might they be?” asked no one. Well: The premise of the first movie (big monsters from another dimension fighting big robots from this one), wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, a point I’m sure any student of mecha-anime…
Killer Fungus and the Return of Butterflies
It’s a jungle out there It rained the other morning, giving me an excuse to not mow and enjoy the little English lawn daisies a little longer. Small flowers attract small critters and there was drama aplenty among the blades of grass. First off, the zombie dung flies (Scathophaga stercoraria) are back right on schedule.…
Thinking Outside the Jar
I’ve loved Henry’s Olives ever since my friend introduced them to me a few years back. But the idea of cooking with the locally made, hand-cured olives never crossed my mind. Time to be adventurous — and unconventional. Last month I threw some in my Chinese chicken dish and my family loved it. The warmth…
Five Ways to Honor the Departed
The last joke my grandmother told was a yellowed newspaper clipping, left in an envelope in her desk drawer for us to find after she died. It was a humor essay by a man who described the effort it took in his life to accumulate all his possessions, and how little fun it would be…
Passions and April Fools
I want to have fun and just play this week, but I have massive contrasts on my mind. Blame the first night of Passover, a venerable celebration of the safety for the first-born sons guaranteed during widespread destruction by painting the blood of the Paschal lamb on the doorframe in a ritual which likely has…
Nice Try
Editor: Those young girls on the cover of the NCJ (“‘We’re Scared,'” March 22). Are you sure they aren’t just working their cell phones? Richard C. Brown, Eureka Editor’s note: Yes, we are sure.
‘A Lack of Creativity’
Editor: The controversy over the statue of William McKinley has once again revealed the fault lines in our community (“McKinley Removal Process Continues Without a Vote,” posted online March 22). What it also reveals is how polarization gives birth to a lack of creativity in addressing the situation. We can do better. Take the example of the…
